Metroid Savior: History
by Iccirrion
Summary: Set 2 years after the events of Fusion, a war, unrivaled in scale, has erupted across Federation controlled space, fueled by the vengeful anger of the Space Pirates. During this time of turmoil, can a single warrior rise up to restore peace, or will they be drowned in the discovery of their own history. Rated T for violence, mild language and general Metroid content.
1. Prologue-Part 1

To say the Space Pirates were gone wasn't an entirely false idea, their homeworld had been occupied by the Galactic Federation, their operations had been thwarted at every turn by the Hunter, Samus Aran, and their planetary stronghold of Zebes had been annihilated in its entirety, leaving nothing but a field of rock where the planet once was. In that sense, the Space Pirates were well and truly gone, their leaders, Ridley, Mother Brain, Dark Samus, were all dead, they had no more fortresses with which to run to and any survivors were in scattered groups that would have no hope of achieving anything other than an early demise by continuing to struggle against the forces of the Federation.

However, the Space Pirates were a far reaching organization, far more so than even the Federation, while the bulk of their numbers came from Urtraghus, they had members from untold numbers of species, and with little care for maintaining a solid empire, they strove deeper and further into the galaxy, only taking the time to fully colonize worlds which were abundant in rare metals, particularly searching for worlds previously colonized by the Chozo or the other ancient spacefaring races. So while it wouldn't be a lie to say that the Space Pirates had been wiped out, such a statement would only be true within the confines of Federation Space, for if one ventured too far beyond the safety of the fleets, beyond the fringe colonies, one would find that they were still a very real threat. And it was only a matter of time before they made a move.

Unsurprisingly, the pirates were furious with the Federation, they had lost worlds, soldiers, their best leaders, precious resources, all because of them and their lapdog, Samus. Revenge was at the forefront of their minds, but they knew they had to be careful, while they still had a strong presence outside of Federation territory, they were still only equal, perhaps very slightly more, in terms of military strength, an all-out war, which they knew would be popular and they had the confidence that their soldiers were more than a match for those of their enemy. But there was a fear there, a fear of the Hunter, of Samus Aran, fighting fleets was one thing, fighting armies was one thing, but this one woman, this one individual, showing up in a bright orange suit of armor as if mocking their incompetence, always appeared, entire worlds fell, Zebes, Tallon, Aether, always alone, she marched through their forces, and never failed to completely destroy anything they had built up. A war against the allies of Samus was a hopeless endeavor, who knew the damage she could do if they angered the Hunter.

But after six years of simmering resentment, something occurred that created exactly the opportunity the pirates needed, the events on board the B.S.L. and the destruction of SR388. It took a year after it actually happened to reach the pirates who lived far beyond the reach of Federation news outlets and information brokers, but it was heard eventually. At first the reaction was one of further fear, Samus Aran had ruined another planet, the Metroid homeworld at that, yet their fear soon became joy as the news came of the results. SR388 had become a planet of interest to the Federation, as had the research being done on board the B.S.L., and the actions of Samus were not taken kindly at all by the Federation, declaring the Hunter a criminal and ordering her hunted down herself. While the situation seemed to be that she had fled from the Federation, she certainly hadn't been found and her assistance had been non-existent since the incident, one thing was certain, she was no longer a friend of the Federation. This, in the absence of the one who had been the end of all the pirates' greatest operations, was the perfect opportunity, to wage war.

And wage war they did, 18 months after the destruction of SR388, the entirety of the Space Pirate fleets entered Galactic Federation space with intent to subjugate, plunder and destroy. Federation intelligence had ensured that they were prepared for the coming invasion, but nevertheless, the relentless pirate attacks, and the number of fringe worlds demanding protection made it impossible to hold the border and within a week, the galaxy was at war. And in this time of confusion, of suffering, the renowned 'Galactic Savior', was nowhere to be found, the Champion of the Chozo, the Hero of Aether, the despised 'Hunter': Samus Aran, remained hidden…

* * *

Caesarea Prime was a world far disconnected from Federation control, hundreds of other systems lying, mostly unoccupied, between its own dusty surface and the worlds controlled by the galaxy's most powerful government. Despite this, the world boasted a huge population for a colony, with more than three billion inhabitants on a world close in size to Mars. The people of the world were scattered about, with nearly a thousand small cities dotted around the landscape, surrounded by farms that tried to make the most of the world. But geographically wasn't the only way, and probably not even the most obvious way, the population was scattered, for the demographics on the planet were quite possibly the most varied in the galaxy, no single species was able to claim more they made up more than 3% of the total population, with the vast majority holding less than 1%.

Of course, there was a reason for this, the planet wasn't ever a designated colony, but instead formed as a meeting place for fugitives from the Federation, rebels against the space pirates or other lowlifes who simply didn't want to live within the bounds placed on them in the more civilized areas of the galaxy. There was never a directed colonization effort by any single species, rather, as more and more criminals made it a place of refuge, certain individuals rose up as leaders, forming gangs, which as they grew required a civilian presence to provide food, clothes and other services, eventually leading to small towns, which eventually grew into cities. In the current situation, most of these warlords were now governors, with each city having a semblance of law, each dictated by the governor's personal opinions, which still satisfied most on the planet, for any disposition, one was more than likely to find a city who had similar morals, or lack thereof.

Beyond the cities, there is little more than farmland, followed by vast tracts of red or pink desert, the little fertile land hotly contested by the various governors, ownership of which is normally the result of charisma or whoever can convince the best fighters that they can offer the most in terms of reward. The farmers themselves are rarely people to be trifled with either though, many came from backgrounds that were less than friendly and they were often used to dealing with people violently.

All in all, Caesarea Prime was no place for someone looking for somewhere peaceful to settle down, it might have kept one away from the bureaucracy of the Federation and even the Space Pirates were wise enough to avoid angering the population, but if one wasn't able to stand on their own, they would quickly find themselves vanishing.

But for those who were able to make it a home, and were strong enough to keep it one, there was always a way to prosper. Each governor had laws, and where there are laws, there are criminals, anyone strong enough to chase down and capture, dead or alive, the types of fugitives who lived on a world already populated by them would have no trouble quickly getting rich.

And on an exceptionally sunny afternoon, six months after the war between the Galactic Federation and the Space Pirates broke out, in the city of Titan, an example of that strength was strolling up the main market street to the residence of the governor, holding a large pistol to the back of a vaguely frog-like, humanoid alien, with wide purple eyes that seemed to be trembling and warty, olive colored skin.

The captor was herself human, at least in appearance, she had golden-brown, chin-length hair with a lock of slightly longer hair on each side of her head, framing her face. Her brown eyes were emotionless, focused solely on her prisoner and the gun she held to the creature's head. Her attire was rather concealing of her figure, a thick cloak made of a rough cloth that was an ugly-green camouflage pattern, over the top of an unseen black shirt, brown combat trousers and black boots.

The crowds parted as she came to a halt a few feet from the door of the building, those who had been trading in the street pausing to look up. Most had heard of this new arrival, she had shown up little under a year ago and immediately began taking up jobs, hunting down anyone and anything that angered the governor, and she seemed exceptionally good at it as well. There were only rumors of how she actually did it, and those varied quite a bit depending on who you might ask, but they all maintained that she had never failed once she had selected a target and never took more than two days to bring them to the door of Governor Vis.

"Vis!" Her voice suddenly called out as she pushed her captive to his knees, keeping her gun firmly pressed against the back of his head, "If you want Jirol, he's right here!" A few moments passed in silence before the heavy metal door of what was essentially the city hall creaked open on its motorized hinges and the governor stepped out, flanked by two armored bodyguards, both carrying large energy rifles. For a kriken, Vis' skeletal appearance was rather bulky, a combination of genetic enhancements and heavy armor, and his crimson body was covered in ornate black markings, add to that the natural aura of intimidation that a kriken gave off and he ended up being a rather commanding figure.

The governor's single eye looked slowly over the prisoner, verifying that it was indeed Jirol, before speaking himself, his voice coming out as a series of chirps and clicks, "Not bad, but if you keep things going at this rate Amanda, you'll lose your job, there's only so many people willing to break my rules." It took a few moments for the hunter, Amanda's, earpiece to translate the speech into something her mind could understand, not that she really responded to what the governor said, instead she moved her thumb around her weapon, flicking a switch on the side, the weapon suddenly emitting an audible hum as it powered up.

"750." There was a mumbling in the crowd watching as Amanda spoke, obviously asking for her payment, several of them knew that the reward offered for Jirol was only 500K, it took someone who was either pretty confident, or outright stupid, to try and push up a price by 50% with someone like Vis.

"Why should I pay more when I clearly made it known what I was willing to reward?" Vis spoke again, unmoving, if he had had a mouth he might have been smirking, it was interesting to see what people were thinking when the pushed against him, especially this one, for one who seemed so intent on hunting down those who broke his laws, opposing him herself seemed a bit of a strange choice.

"The notice didn't specify dead or alive, you give me the 500, you get a corpse, or you can pay the extra 250 for the effort I put in to bring Jirol to you alive and in good health." As she spoke, Amanda pushed the gun forward slightly, prompting a whimper from Jirol who clearly felt the heat emitting from the barrel of the weapon.

Vis stood silent for several moments before turning to one of his guards, "Give her the money, I think it's worth it for an opportunity to get another chat with my dear friend here." Turning his gaze ominously towards Jirol, the alien trembling visibly, obviously not feeling at all comfortable with the idea of this 'chat', Vis took a single step forward as the guard handed the governor a dusty brown pouch.

Amanda's left hand emerged from underneath her cloak, held outstretched to receive the payment which was promptly tossed to her. Catching it neatly in her hand she carefully judged the weight of it before sliding it under her cloak, at the same time flicking the switch on her weapon again, the dangerous humming ceasing as she did so before she swiftly set a foot on Jirol's back and pushed him towards Vis, whose bodyguards quickly stepped forward and grabbed hold of the prisoner.

"You know, I wouldn't mind upping that to a million." Vis took another step forward towards Amanda before gesturing to Jirol, "Having someone with your skills in my personal employ would do a lot to strengthen my position, of course, you would continue receiving your bounties, and more..."

"I work alone."

The response was instant, without hesitation and accompanied by Amanda immediately turning and walking away, as far as she was concerned, she had been paid, the job was done, and she had no intention of becoming anyone's lackey, besides, on a world like this, how long would that position last? Vis watched her walk off for a brief moment before shrugging and returning inside, signalling for his guards to bring Jirol in after him, he wasn't too bothered by the rejection, Amanda was useful enough to avoid annoying, he'd rather have her keep his enemies in check as a freelancer, than be a begrudging employee, he'd wait a while before making another offer.

* * *

Regulis' Bar, while it couldn't be said to be an entirely friendly place, was certainly the most civil eating and drinking establishment in the city of Titan, named after the owner, a human hailing from the observation and research colony on Pluto. How exactly he found his way to Caesarea Prime and why was a mystery to all, no attempts at digging up previous criminal activity have been recorded and his business was perfectly legitimate, even Federation officials would have a hard time getting him shut down. But at the same time, he displayed a knowledge of the workings of the underground world that even many who lived in it didn't have, if anyone needed guided around the planet's black market, or wanted to find the most discreet assassin on the world, he would be the one to ask, provided you brought a drink first.

The bar was also a place Amanda frequented, for digging up information about her targets, meeting with informants or simply for a change from her own cooking. While it wasn't official, in the last few months she seemed to have also gained a reserved seat at the corner of the bar itself, close to the door, saving her from wasting time making her way through whatever crowd occupied the building. It wasn't really official, but Regulis strongly encouraged his other patrons to move somewhere else, Amanda was good business, a dangerous enemy, and more simply, a fellow human, there weren't many in Titan, and fewer still choose his place to meet over the dozen others in the city.

And immediately after handing Jirol over to Vis, Amanda made a stop by at Regulis' Bar for a celebratory drink, and it only took her to sit down before Regulis, who tended the bar himself, took notice of her, knowing immediately she had just pulled off another hunt.

"The usual?"

Amanda looked over as the shorter man approached her, it wasn't that he was unusually short, probably about 5'10", but that was almost half a foot shorter than herself and it made him seem quite short in comparison.

"Yeah, and keep the Yerressian out of it this time, I've told you before about keeping alcohol out of my drinks." The words were stern, but at the same time said with a slight smile, Amanda knew the guy hadn't meant any harm by it, but she'd rather he not try adding anything to her order, although she knew he had paid for it, Yerressian was much more expensive than what she had actually ordered.

"Of course, just thought you might prefer something with a little kick in it every so often." Amanda had indeed told him before, it wasn't that she hated alcohol, but she was fully aware of her situation, more than a handful of people were jealous of how quickly she had climbed the ladder of fame in Titan and how much she was being rewarded for it, getting even the slightest bit tipsy wasn't a risk she was willing to take, at least Yerressian was very mild in terms of intoxication, she hadn't been _too_ angry with him when she noticed.

"Take it the job went well then?" Regulis already knew Amanda must have cleared it up, otherwise she wouldn't be here otherwise, but asked anyway, hoping to hear a little about how it went down, but Amanda merely shrugged as he began to put together her drink.

"You could say that, that Jirol was hardly worth it, I don't know what went down between him and Vis, but I wouldn't have paid anyone 10K to hunt him down, let alone 750, any amateur could've taken him in." Amanda closed her eyes and scratched the bridge of her nose as she finished, it had been a rather uninteresting hunt with a disappointing end, seriously, she felt if she had just shouted at the guy he would've surrendered.

"Well, you can't really complain, there are plenty of others who would love an easy job that pays that well."

"Fair enough." Amanda just shrugged again before turning in her seat towards the screen in the corner of the room, which, unsurprisingly, was displaying the news, from a pirate broadcaster of course. Also unsurprisingly, the topic being addressed was the war, even though Caesarea Prime was far disconnected from the Federation and the vast majority of the population harbored some form of dislike for the government, the Space Pirates weren't exactly thought highly of either, and beyond any matter of like or dislike, this was the largest war known to have been fought in the galaxy, interest in its proceedings were high wherever one might travel. The issue of distance and separation meant though that what she was seeing on the screen was likely a week or two old, few cared enough to ensure that fugitive worlds were kept up to date with what was going on.

"There you go." Finishing up Amanda's drink and passing the glass to her, Regulis quickly noted her interest in the news, "Thinking about the war again? Haven't heard of any change in the situation, still seems to be a bit of a stalemate, guess it's just a matter of who runs out of soldiers first." A shout came from the other end of the bar, Regulis quickly looking up and seeing another patron seeking his attention, "Ah, I'll be right back."

Without averting her gaze from the screen, Amanda picked up her drink and quickly downed it as Regulis scurried up to his other customers. What he had said was likely true in some ways, but she knew the situation, Space Pirates were fanatically loyal to their cause, far more than the Federation soldiers. In a bad situation, it was the Federation army that was more likely to give up and flee, abandoning their commanders, and Pirate tactics were used to taking advantage of that, morale was an equal target as lives, one of the many reasons why they preferred violent, close combat encounters, let their opponents see their friends literally torn apart in front of them. The Federation was holding for the moment, but it was only a matter of time before the savagery of the Pirate forces pushed the balance of the war firmly in their favor.

Something about it felt wrong.

Amanda looked down at the empty glass in her hand, here she was, sitting on a planet, thousands of light-years away from the war, sitting in a bar and watching the destruction on a screen…was this really where she should be. Since she had heard about the situation she had been trying to ignore it, that instinctive thought that she should be there. There were varied reasons why she didn't want to return, like many on this planet, she had her reasons for growing to dislike the Federation, but did that give her the right to abandon all the innocent lives that being erased, all the honest soldiers who were truly fighting for no other reason than to protect those behind them?

A heavy sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes, she couldn't keep running away, there were people who needed her, she might just be one woman, but that was no excuse for hiding away out here. There would be consequences, sure, but she couldn't deny any longer that the consequences of action were a better bet than the consequences of inaction. It was time to go.

* * *

"Well, just let me know if you need anything else." Regulis gave his now satisfied patrons a charming smile before quickly sliding back down the bar towards Amanda, only to find her place empty. In her place, sitting on the bar, was a large pouch, he quickly picked it up and immediately knew it was money, given the situation, he already knew what it was money, unless she regularly carried around money like this, it was probably her pay for Jirol. Underneath the pouch was a scrap of paper with a set of coordinates quickly scribbled onto it, it didn't take him a huge leap of logic to guess it was where Amanda lived, it was known she had her home outside the confines of the city, but no one had actually been able to find, or if they had, they hadn't lived to tell of it.

There were only three reasons Regulis could think of that Amanda would just wordlessly leave like that, giving him a huge amount of cash and her address. Firstly, this was her idea of flirting, which he very much doubted. Secondly, he had just made one hell of a drink for her and just received the biggest tip anyone on the planet was every likely to make. Or thirdly…he glanced up at the screen just as a footage of a evacuation transport getting shot down by a Pirate cruiser was displayed before turning his gaze to the door again, sliding the pouch under the counter and the note into his pocket. Honestly, there was really only one reason he could think of why Amanda had suddenly left.

"Don't die."

* * *

 **Author's Notes: _Well, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter in Metroid Savior, this is an idea I've been working on mentally for years and finally decided to actually get into writing it. I can't guarantee chapters will come out quickly, but I'm trying to prioritize consistency over speed, I don't think I'm the only one who'd rather have a story that's eventually finished than a story that you quickly get the first 5 chapters but nothing more. This series will use a bit of my own canon, I don't know the entirety of Metroid lore after all, and this idea came to mind before the announcements of Federation Force and Metroid Prime 4, so the story will completely ignore the events of these two games. Certain things from other games may not be present either, most of my knowledge of the series comes from full completion of the Metroid Prime Trilogy and Hunters, limited playthroughs of Super Metroid, Fusion and the original, as well as a lot of wiki reading. So sections of this story may conflict with the official canon for the series, but I might no claim that it is or will be consistent. If you have questions concerning specific areas of what is canon for this fanfiction series, feel free to ask me in PMs._**


	2. Prologue-Part 2

Ten minutes after leaving the bar, Amanda had left the main city of Titan, making her way through the outer city, which consisted mostly of makeshift houses and a few of the smaller farms before ending in a large metal wall that encircled the whole city. Her own dwelling was far further out, just under a hundred miles, but it suited her like that, she didn't like the idea of being tied up with the city, as things were she was still an outsider, and she wanted to keep it that way. It cost her a fair bit to make the journey every time, her mode of transport was a salvage, perhaps stolen is a better term, outdated Federation speeder, it worked well but required standard Federation power cells to run, which were a rare commodity this far from their own territory.

The thoughts of whether she was really making the right choice still bothered Amanda, she was out here for a reason, there had been nothing left for her in Federation space and they obviously hadn't wanted her. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she should be out there, even if they had cast her out, those were the worlds she had grown up on, it was still her home, and the thought of all the people getting caught needlessly in this war stirred something in her. But the doubt was still there, it was part of the reason why she left her money with Regulis as well as the co-ordinates to her place, she had made it pretty clear what her intentions were, and if he decided to pay and visit and found her still there…well, however the situation went it would be awkward.

It didn't take Amanda too long to arrive at the gate, really just a hole in the wall with a guard tower each side and a makeshift energy field covering up the gap, it looked almost like the result of an attack that they just never bothered to seriously repair. A quick wave to one of the guards in the tower and the field was lowered, she came in and out often enough, and her work had gotten her enough of a reputation that there were no questions needed, it probably was against protocol, but then again, on Caesarea Prime, adhering to protocol wasn't always considered. Passing wordlessly through the gate, she didn't pause as she made her way to her speeder, parked not far away from the entrance, as the field closed behind her. Some might have thought that on a world like this, that leaving one's speeder out in the open was a bit of an unwise move, but it was well known that two people had already successfully stolen Amanda's speeder, each coincidently disappeared within a week and the vehicle was suddenly back in her possession, so there were very few willing to take the risks that seemed to be involved in such a theft.

The speeder itself was a rather modestly sized model, nicknamed 'wheelbarrows' by the Federation soldiers who used them after their shape. Relatively thin, but long, like a motorcycle, a single wheel at the front which kept it planted on the ground, reducing the strength required from its two rear mounted thrusters to move it compared to full hover speeders. Quickly mounting the wheelbarrow, Amanda wrapped part of her cloak around her mouth and over her head, it wouldn't do much to protect her if she crashed, but it would help cut the windchill, it wouldn't exactly be a slow ride. After starting the engines, the back of the speeder lifting about a foot off the ground, she glanced over her shoulder towards Titan again, it would very likely be the last time she ever saw the city to be honest, but nevertheless, she didn't feel anything…she guessed it really had just been a temporary thing this whole time, there was nothing left for her here. So without a second look back, she turned her eyes to the horizon and, with a flare from the thrusters, sped off into the distance, leaving the walled city far behind her.

* * *

Amanda's home was far from the normal on Caesarea Prime. While many had proper houses built, of various materials, the majority of the population used second-hand prefabs that inevitably grew as the owner salvaged extensions and generally improved their home until they were satisfied, which in most circumstances was never. Those who didn't live in either normal housing or modified prefabs remained in the rather shady apartment buildings that had popped up around some of the cities, although anyone who had a true desire to live anything that resembled a comfortable life, even by Caesarea Prime standards, knew to quickly invest in a prefab.

But for Amanda, living far out beyond the city, apartments weren't an option, neither really was housing, not without taking the effort and money to have water treatment, plumbing and a power supply built as well, so most assumed she had a prefab shelter somewhere out in the wastes, but in reality, she was, quite simply, a cavewoman. Far from Titan, was a rather impressively sized plateau of dusty red rock that rose sharply up nearly a dozen meters from the surrounding desert in a near vertical wall, the whole area crisscrossed with canyons. It was to this plateau that Amanda returned, parking her speeder just beside one of the canyon entrances, particularly one that closed at the top at the entrance, making it appear to be a cave from the outside, although a dozen meters in the ceiling opened up into a bright, rocky corridor. It was in that dozen meters of enclosed canyon that Amanda had built a place she called her home, three indents in the canyon walls served as 'rooms' and had various pieces of equipment stored in each, including a ramshackle shower room, with a water purifier whirring loudly in one corner, a simple kitchen with a single chair sat beside a small worktop and the third seemed to be a study of some kind, with a collection of various, mismatched pieces of machinery and computers piled around a desk which boasted a display of six screens, all in all, pretty impressive for a cave. One might notice that her abode seemed to lack any form of sleeping area, despite the place being visibly well lived in, not even evidence of a sleeping bag or a cleared floor space where she might spend the nights.

Leaving the speeder outside, Amanda entered the cave, pushing aside a rough cloth curtain she had put up at the entrance, it was roughly the same colour as the surrounding rocks, but was mainly to keep the dust and sand out rather than actually conceal the doorway. A few moments after she entered she was greeted by a voice, male from the sound of it, but there didn't seem to be anyone else present.

"Welcome home Amanda, how did the job go?" It was a fairly flat voice, there was some emotion in there, but while it wasn't too noticeable, one might think it was forced.

"Finished it up easily enough, Vis accepted my extra charge, but I ended up leaving the reward with Regulis." Amanda replied as she took off her cloak and threw it over the chair in her computer room before making her way to the shower room.

"I see, I'll make preparations." The voice's words made it clear that it knew what the situation was, that Amanda wouldn't simply leave that amount of money for someone else unless it was finally time for them to leave.

In the shower room, Amanda stood over a simple, metal sink and quickly washed her hands before carefully removing contact lenses from her eyes and dropping them to the ground. She gave her face a quick wash, clearing away the dust of the day, as she finished she looked up into the small mirror she had attached to the wall, she already look rather different, just from having her skin a little clearer and seeing her eyes once more in their natural green shade.

"You just make sure the ship is ready, I'll clear up in here." Drying herself off as she spoke, Amanda returned to the computer room and sat down, a flick of a switch bringing the machines out of their sleep as she immediately began the process of completely wiping the data stored on them, Regulis would be free to take whatever he wanted from the cave, but Amanda wasn't willing to let him have access to her files.

After double checking that the program was working correctly and would completely wipe _everything_ off the storage, Amanda stood up again and began a quick check of the whole area, making sure that there was nothing else she would have to take with her or destroy, a couple of portable data storage cells were lying in one of the kitchen drawers, which Amanda quickly pocketed, but that seemed to be all that there was, so with one final look around the cave as the computer beeped, notifying anyone in earshot it had finished its task, Amanda turned and left. Rather than return through the entrance however, she made her way deeper into the canyon, pushing past another curtain she had hung just before the ceiling split and walking briskly down the natural corridor.

About a minute later, Amanda came to a point in the canyon where it opened out quite wide, and in the centre of the area was a large object, hidden by a huge cloth, the same as the type Amanda had used at the entrances to her cave, that had been draped over the top of it.

"Everything's set, just give the word." The voice spoke again, clearly coming from beneath the cloth.

Amanda for now ignored the voice, grabbing the cloth firmly and, with a grunt, pulling the whole thing off, revealing something that would have any other inhabitant of Caesarea Prime drooling. A starship, and not just any starship, but one that was obviously top of the line, sleek curves, heavy pulse beams mounted in the hull at the front in such a way that they didn't ruin the silhouette of the vessel. And the whole thing gleamed in the sunlight, the bright orange hull, trimmed with red, a single green window at the front of the ship revealing a high-tech interior with enough space for several passengers to travel in comfort. The main body of the ship was held off the ground by four large legs that extended from either side of the ship, giving it quite an intimidating form and more than doubling its height.

Not wasting any time to admire the ship, after all, she'd had it for a while, Amanda quickly walked underneath the ship as a small platform, just large enough to work as a single person elevator, extended from the underside of the vessel. Without missing a stride, Amanda stepped onto the platform and stopped, looking up before, a second later, being taken up into the ship's interior.

The inside of the ship was for the most part, dark grey in colour, much more toned down than the bright exterior of the ship, many of the walls however had various computer systems on them, lights, switches, buttons and screens that would probably mean nothing to anyone not used to flying spacecraft.

"What's the plan?" The voice spoke again, this time it might become clear what it was, there was still no one else around, but the voice was very clearly coming from the ship itself, a few speakers from the cockpit to place it specifically. With that knowledge, and the slight emotional inflection, one might correctly deduce that the voice was the ship's internal AI, which would make the ship seem even more advanced to anyone investigating it, after all, a fully functional AI that could fit in a ship this size was extremely rare. It's communication throughout the cave had likely been the result of it transmitting through the computers, and while Amanda had been outside the ship by simply using external speakers.

"Check the news and analyse the areas of conflict within Federation territory." As Amanda spoke she made her way to a panel in one of the back corners and, with the swift press of a button, opened it up, revealing a rather small storage area, filled with clothes, sorted efficiently to make the most of the space. "Find an area where there has been fighting within the last month but has since fallen back, preferably ones where both factions retreated, then plot a course for deep space at the centre of the area closest to where we are now, we may be going back, but let's keep the fanfare to a minimum."

"Find somewhere quiet, on it."

As the AI got to processing, Amanda began to strip, neatly folding her shirt and trousers before placing them, alongside her boots, into the compartment. Standing just in her underwear, she took a breath, had it really been eleven months? Reaching into the compartment again, her hands went immediately to the back and carefully pulled out a bright blue, single piece, jumpsuit, pink crystals glowing softly on the upper back, left breast and on the back of the left palm. Laying the suit out on the bed, Amanda looked over the suit for a while, she had decided it best while she was hiding here to keep this stored away, if anything told people who she was, this would be it, but it was time to go back.

Reaching down, Amanda's fingers quickly brushed over the crystals on the left breast of the suit before moving to the centre of the neck, an orange glow appearing where her finger came into contact with the material. With a single movement, running her hand down the front of the suit, in a show of incredible technology, the fibres around the contact, despite being solidly woven together, came undone, opening up the suit as if there had been a zipper there. With the suit open, Amanda picked it up and in a fluid movement that made it clear this wasn't the first time she had done this, she put the suit on, running her finger back up the opening, the fibres once more weaving together, leaving the suit once more with no openings except the one for Amanda's head.

Amanda looked down at her right palm, slowly clenching and unclenching her fist as she got used to the feeling again, although, to be honest, she felt somewhat relieved, the suit was almost part of her, she had been separated from it for almost a year, but she still hadn't gotten used to _not_ wearing it.

"Location confirmed Amanda, course plotted and uploaded to the navigation computer, should I begin?" As the AI spoke Amanda shook off her feelings of nostalgia and briskly strode over to the pilot's seat and sat down, spinning the chair around towards the window and extending the piloting controls.

"Just tell me where to go Adam, I want to do the flying, it's been a while after all." Amanda replied with a slight smile as her hands immediately began the take-off procedure with speed and skill as if she'd never missed a day, the thrusters beginning to roar beneath her as the spacecraft slowly began to rise out of the canyon. "And you can drop the whole 'Amanda' thing now."

"I'll leave it to you then, Samus."

A moment later, the ship's legs folded up, the two on each side coming together to form wings as the main thrusters fired and, with a resounding boom, the ship shot into the sky and out into the void of space.

* * *

"I want to see you again."

Lightyears away from Caesarea prime, a young woman with long, raven-black hair sighed as she draped herself over the space station's control console, seemingly either ignorant or apathetic about any potential errors she might cause. Her expression one of boredom, the type that came from waiting for something that you weren't actually sure was going to show up.

"Given that this is the third two-week mission you've sent yourself on in the last two months, you make that rather hard to believe." A voice, sounding somewhat annoyed and a little distorted, came from the main monitor which was displaying a communication readout, the majority of the screen devoted to a waveform monitor.

The woman pouted as she pulled herself back up in her seat and looked up at the screen, "I invited you along."

"And if I wasn't doing some real work, who would pay to keep us fed when we got back?" The reply came almost instantly, the annoyance in the voice's tone growing a little although it quickly stopped as the woman looked down, obviously a little hurt by something he said. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean it like that, I know this is important to you, but you're not earning any money doing this, that's why you have to let me keep up the business, it's so that you can do what you're doing." The annoyance in the voice was gone, replaced by sincere regret.

"It's okay…I just…I need to do this." The woman took her right fist in her hand and looked down at it, the turn in the conversation had brought her mind back to the reason she was out on this Federation databank orbiting a planetless star. "I have to find my answer."

"Don't worry, I understand, I'm just getting a little cranky, work's always a little difficult without you around. And I'm still worried about you, this isn't just chasing down a bank thief, or delivering some package…you're putting yourself in danger, and not the kind I'm happy with."

The woman was silent for a few moments, not sure how to respond, she couldn't really deny that what she was doing was risky, she had confidence in her own strength, in her own skill, but the task she had set herself was a tall order, and truth be told, she found it hard sometimes to keep her own spirit up, how could she help someone else?

"This is only a test run…I promise I'll focus on getting out alive, if this works, it'll be much easier to pull it off a second time anyway."

"You'd better, after all I've followed you through, going off and dying alone on a station in the middle of nowhere is not a good enough payout." Sounding a bit more on the cheerful side, the voice spoke again, clearly not meaning what he was saying, at least entirely.

"Can't argue with that…" The woman glanced up as an alert appeared on the screen, her face falling as she read it, "…looks like I'll have to go, the station's moving behind the sun, in another few minutes I won't be able to hear you at all."

"It's fine, I'm glad I got to hear you again anyway, contact me again when you get off the station and we'll arrange somewhere to meet. Just confirm with me, you do have everything set up properly, right?"

The woman sighed and smiled, he really was a worrywart, "The station is broadcasting emergency signal M-23, 'Baby's cry', on all frequencies, station defences have been fully reprogrammed and the charges have been set in case things go wrong, and don't worry, the station canteen has plenty of food left."

"Good, take care of yourself, and remember, contact me as soon as you get off the station, if you don't I'll head to GS841 myself."

"I will, and don't worry, I'll see you soon." With her goodbyes said, the woman cancelled the communication, the screen returning to a rotating Galactic Federation symbol as she stood up and took a few steps away from the seat towards one of the other screens in the room.

The station was silent but for her footsteps and her breathing, even the computers and life support on this station operated almost noiselessly, it was very easy to feel alone, so she was glad she got that chance to talk to someone while she could, but now the star was between her and the nearest communication relay, even a simple text-only message would be difficult to send or receive. Not that being alone was really her biggest fear at the minute, she was still struggling between two options, that what she was waiting for would never show up, or that it would, and would prove to be far beyond her.

Pausing at one of the screens, she leaned down and looked at the display, a paused section of security footage, labelled as being from cameras on planet Norion's planetary defence base. At the centre of the image, blurred slightly from the movement, an orange armoured individual was rolling out of the way of a Space Pirate beam.

"…someday…" The woman turned and left the control room, the sound of her feet against the metal floor echoing as she walked.

* * *

 **Author's Note: _Well, here's chapter two, and big surprise, Amanda is actually Samus. I didn't intend for this to actually be a shock for anyone, hence it only lasting two chapters, but this won't be the last we see of that identity, after all, Amanda's been making herself known for almost a year on Caesarea Prime, but that's for later in the story. For now, this marks the end of what is pretty much the opening act, a bit of a prologue if you will, quickly looking just a little at where Samus has been in the last two years and giving a quick glimpse at one of the other main characters in Metroid Savior. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you enjoyed it, if you did, feel free to post a review, I love hearing people's thoughts, and if you didn't like it so much, you can also feel free to post a review, I'll take any constructive criticism, be it on the positives or the negatives of my story._**


	3. A Cry in the Void

Describing deep space has always been a rather difficult task, because the only thing really of note is that there's nothing there, and everything you can see is pretty far away. Deep space was certainly pretty, if one turned off their ships lights the galaxy would be more visible and clear than form anywhere else. But while some did make use of the vast expanses of the void for relaxing and admiring the scenery, most made use of it to hide, or for the silence, this far from a celestial body, no one would find you, you became a speck in the blackness of space.

And for now, that suited Samus just fine, as a bright light suddenly lit up a particular point of the deep space lying in the mid-galactic-west of Federation controlled space as her gunship exited FTL, slowing quickly to a stop in the black void. Up until four weeks ago, the entire are had been in heated conflict, but more important battles elsewhere had pulled both sides away, leaving a struggling civilian population and their garrisons to rebuild and try to prepare themselves for the war's inevitable return. But for now, it was the perfect staging ground for Samus to prepare her next step, long range scans from battleships might pick her up if she entered too close to active Federation fleets, but here, even if planetary sensors were able to pick her up, a single gunship in deep space would probably ignore her in favour of preparing against cruisers. But being this close to Federation territory would also allow Adam access to their communication relays, providing virtually instant access to the current situation, which would be far more accurate than the often third- or fourth-hand news stories they had had to rely on while on Caesarea Prime.

"So, what are we looking for?" Adam's question was fair enough, the amount of information out there was staggering, sifting through it all would be a time consuming task and ultimately pointless if Samus had any idea of what their next step was to be.

"We should probably make a sta…"

"Wait, something's come up." Samus' reply was cut short by Adam speaking up again, a display popping up on the main monitor, a simple, if somewhat distorted, uniform distress signal, a specific type that Samus recognized instantly.

"…Baby's cry…" It had been a while since Samus had last intercepted such a distress call, and that had been a time she'd rather forget, but at the same time, something struck her about this, that after two years away, finally she returns...and she's greeted by this. She wasn't a big believer in fate or destiny, but neither did she have much faith in coincidences, there was something more to this.

"I thought this might interest you, not because of the signal itself, but because of where it's coming from." Bringing up the system the distress signal was coming from on the main monitor, replacing the previous display, "F.D.S Station 4, a small but clandestine data storage and archive facility, this one specifically stores confidential communications between Federation staff working on more secretive projects and initiatives."

The thought that it was a pirate attack was quickly dismissed by Samus, if it was such a secretive facility, they would use encoded Federation distress channels to request specific help, not broadcasting openly with such an easy to intercept signal, something must have gone seriously wrong for a baby's cry to be put out. It was designed to attract attention after all, and when a secret government-run facility was trying to attract attention, things weren't going to have an easy explanation.

"Anything else you can tell me?"

Adam was silent for a few moments, processing what information he had available to offer, "None, the only other point of note is that this signal has been broadcasting non-stop for eleven days now."

Eleven days…that was a long time, a Federation first response squad should have been sent over a week ago and if that had failed they were supposed to move in and destroy the station.

"Checking Federation channels though, this is apparently the third time this has happened recently, isolated data storage stations, all so far with a working staff of less than twenty, supposed to be operating silently, broadcasting a baby's cry for two weeks before shutting off completely. And here's something interesting, the civilian crew are all ejected from the stations alive on the shuttles, unfortunately none have reliable or coherent reports about what actually happened."

Samus leaned back in her seat as she thought over what Adam had just told her, it was certainly curious, the fact that the civilians were sent off the station almost proved it wasn't the Space Pirates, showing mercy to civilians would be a huge break from their MO. Of course, that didn't provide too much help as to who the culprit actually was or what their goals were, the best Samus could deduce is that they must be pretty good at what they do, to pull of this kind of stunt three times, set the witnesses free, but do it in such a way that they don't actually know what happened…her interest was piqued, just what were they after, whose attention were they trying to get?

"Adam, plot a course for the station, it's worth investigating, and we could always see what information we can find out ourselves while we're there." The decision made, Adam immediately beginning the process of plotting the quickest route to the system. The thought that it might be a trap, that Samus herself was the target of whatever was going on, had occurred to her, but lots of people had thought they were a match for her, and that thought hadn't ended well for any of them. If it was indeed someone trying to find her, they'd get their chance to meet her and have a good long chat about why it was worth hijacking three Federation stations just to get her attention.

* * *

It was a short flight, no more than a couple of hours, such general distress signals didn't have an exceptionally long range after all, and it didn't take long to locate the station, not many things in the system were broadcasting openly after all.

"Are there any open hangers, or are we forcing our way in?" Samus manually guided the ship towards the station at a cautious pace, very aware of the possibility she was expected.

"Automated landing systems are still operational; two of the four hangers are free for landing."

Samus glanced curiously to the speaker on her right, where she had decided to image Adam was hosted, "What's blocking the other two?"

There was silence for a couple of seconds as Adam investigated, "I believe they both are occupied, I can detect energy trails matching a Anhur-class patrol ship no more than six days old leading to one hanger, I can't detect anything from the other, I would guess it's one of the stations own shuttles."

"Any chance it could be the hijacker's ship?"

Adam's response was instant, "No trace of any energy trails whatsoever, if it is the hijacker they're flying something far beyond anything the Federation or Pirates have, something like Chozo tech, or possibly a Vhozon prototype, we believe they've had some success with zero-emission drives, or the worst case scenario, it could be a Kriken vessel."

Samus nodded, it being a shuttle made the most sense, the Chozo were extinct and she could only make use of their equipment because of her genetic modifications, the Vhozon, while not exactly friends, were at peace with the Federation, so it was unlikely that they'd attack facilities like this, especially in such a fashion. As for the Kriken, well, as powerful as their empire was, she doubted they'd be willing to get involved in a three way war with both the Space Pirates and the Federation, although she'd have to keep that thought on hold, they would certainly be interested in picking apart the pieces left once the war was over.

"Samus, I think I found the first responders, bringing it up on the monitor." Adam's voice interrupted Samus' thoughts as one of the external camera displays was brought up, showing a Federation army transport in less than ideal condition, "Looks like the 19th platoon, judging from the damage it was taken down by the station's defence system, our hijacker seems pretty good around computers, taking control of an Federation station's turrets and overriding their IFF isn't an easy task."

Samus sighed and leaned back in the seat, this created even more problems, if the Federation army platoon dispatched to investigate a baby's cry didn't report back within 24 hours, a squad of Federation marines would be sent in, and protocol was that if they were attacked, rather than try and board the station in question, instructions were simply to open fire and destroy, or if that wasn't possible, violently disarm, the station. Given that there were no signs of damage to the station, the hijacker must have been aware of this and that an Anhur-class would be a pretty formidable opponent for such a small station, and had chosen to not fire. So that was another thing she could note about her target, they were at least somewhat familiar with Federation response protocol.

"Can you detect any other communications within the station?"

There was another short silence as Adam scanned the station interior before he spoke up, "The internal communication terminals are operational and working as usual, but none are in use, beyond that the only signal in the station is the baby's cry. Federation marines should all have personal communicators, the fact I'm not picking them up probably means they've been killed, or Federation tech has advanced enough in the last two years that I can't detect them."

Leaning forward and standing up out of her chair, Samus slowly stepped away from the cockpit, they weren't likely to get any more information from hovering outside, "Given how long the ship's been here, we'll assume the former, bring us in to land, I'll investigate the rest on foot."

"On it, one of the free hangers is right beside the one the Anhur is docked in, I'll take us in there, we might find more clues there."

Nodding her agreement, Samus paused in the centre of the room as the pink emblem on the back of her suit flashed, at the same time she brought her hands up in a cross in front of her, the similar emblem on the back of her left palm flashing before she quickly brought both hands down, the final emblem on her left breast flashing as the entire suit began to glow brightly, illuminating the room before fading to reveal a figure that the galaxy hadn't seen for over two years.

Samus looked down at her left hand, clenching her fist, reminding herself of how the suit felt, all this time she had keep the power suit stored away, it felt good to finally be back in it.

"All systems online, Varia suit activated."

The mechanical voice notified Samus that the two years without use hadn't harmed the suit, which had never been a worry anyway, if anything, the suit should be in better condition than when she had left the BSL, she had managed to restore it to its original form as well, looking just as it had before she had been infected with the X parasite.

In the short time it took her suit to materialize, Samus thought over the situation and came to what she thought was the most likely conclusion, "Do you think we're dealing with a traitor?" It seemed to make sense, there were no recent energy trails leading to the station except the response shuttle, the hijacker obviously knew their way around Federation protocol and security systems and all three instances had been on stations that were supposedly under-the-radar.

"It would fit what we know, although while not everyone gets along with the Federation, even terrorists generally understand that the Space Pirates are a far less attractive option…if it is a traitor, they must be pretty motivated to be acting at a time like this. The pirates won't show mercy just because they betrayed the Federation, so why are they doing this?"

"We'll find out soon enough."

* * *

As the gunship entered the hanger, it's wings split apart again and folded into landing positions, gently setting the vessel down on the floor of the hanger with the clang of metal against metal. A few seconds later a hatch on the top of the ship opened and Samus quickly rose out of it, surveying the room briefly before jumping down to the floor, arm cannon ready to fire if anything made a wrong move.

"I want the ship ready to leave at a moment's notice, this is a small station, I'm going in, finding out what I can, and leaving, it won't take long." Samus spoke the words truthfully, she had no plans for wasting any time here, she'd investigate, grab what information she could off the stations databanks, deactivate the distress signal, deal with the hijacker, if they were still about, and get back to thinking about how to help with the war. Of course, Samus often planned to finish things up quickly when they rarely did, take her trip to Tallon, she was just supposed to investigate the Orpheon, but then of course Ridley showed up and the whole Phazon incident kicked off, or her last mission, when she had been just sent to escort some Federation scientists for a short time around SR338, but for all the simplicity of the job, she ended up fighting a clone of herself and becoming part metroid, so thinking quick and easy didn't always bring those results.

Despite her desire to get this resolved quickly, she wasn't about to start dashing around the station at a fully sprint, her left hand resting gently on her arm cannon, she carefully left the hanger, keeping her pace moderate. This was still, for all she knew, an enemy occupied station, the external defences had been reprogrammed, so it was entirely possible the interior turrets had been as well, beyond that, the hijacker themselves could still be around, she couldn't let her guard down.

The first point of call was the hanger the Anhur was docked in, and as soon as the door opened, Samus both heard and saw what had happened to the squad it had been transporting. The first thing she noticed was the sound, coming from within the ship itself, a single, loud, persistent tone…a flat lining heart monitor, or rather, eighteen of them, either the crew had removed their vital monitoring systems, or they were all dead.

The five corpses, each armoured with the heavy, gun-metal coloured suits of the Federation marines that lay sprawled around the bottom of the boarding ramp hinted quite strongly at the answer, markings on the shoulders of two of the suits marking them as the squad captain and the ship's pilot. As she approached them, Samus brought the first two fingers of her left hand to the side of her visor and swiped across, her visor flashing grey as she activated the suit's scanner.

"Adam, I've found some of the marines, sending you the scan data, tell me what you find." Giving the instructions as she one by one scanned the bodies, Samus tried to imagine what had happened, the pilot had presumably been instructed to remain with the ship in case a sudden exit was needed, possibly with one or two of the marines in case of attack, that the captain was there, as well as another soldier, possibly a retreat, which was somewhat worrying.

"All were killed by energy blasts, the damage doesn't match any known Federation or Pirate weapon, pretty advanced though, judging from the concentration of the impacts it's pretty accurate, high-rate of fire and powerful enough to match military grade rifles." Adam's analysis of the scans came to Samus as she walked up the ramp into the ship, a quick glance around at the individual readouts confirming that all the marines were dead. "It's hard to say because I don't know how they were standing before they died, but I believe they were all killed by a single enemy…watch yourself Samus, if the hijacker is acting alone, all the skills they've shown, taking down three stations, an entire squad of marines by themselves, and with that kind of weaponry…this isn't your standard criminal."

Samus nodded in acknowledgement as she walked to the control room at the back of the ship and quickly shut down the vital monitoring, the room suddenly falling into an eerie silence. There was something ominous about this whole situation, at this stage it was just a gut feeling, but Samus felt rather strongly now that whoever was behind this really was targeting her. They knew a baby's cry would grab her attention, that the unusual situation, unresolved by the Federation would make her curious enough to investigate, repelling any Federation attempt to remove them from the station, and then they just waited, two weeks, before blowing the station and moving to another and repeating the process.

"Adam, do you have map data for this station?" Samus slowly made her way down the ramp, pausing at the bottom and taking a final look at the fallen marines, deciding that once she was done here she'd anonymously notify the Federation so that the bodies could be retrieved.

"It's a common design, sending the data too you now." As the data transferred, Samus brought her hand to her visor again and swiped her fingers across, the glass once more flashing green, returning to combat mode.

"Give me a marker on the main control room, we'll deal with this quickly." Adam quickly obliged as Samus swiftly made her way out of the room, the map readout on her HUD automatically plotting a course for her. She didn't know who this hijacker was, or why they wanted her, but if it was her they wanted to meet, she'd give them that opportunity, whoever was responsible was certainly going to get to come face to face with Samus Aran.

* * *

 **Author's Note: _This chapter is slightly shorter than the last two, and I hadn't meant that deliberately, but I think it will work better having this chapter be a little shorter before going back to my normal length rather than merge this with the next chapter which not only would delay me updating, but would leave this chapter being, in my opinion, uncomfortably long. I believe this is a decent cutoff point though and I hope you'll enjoy what comes next. If you see anything here you think I could improve or want to comment on what you think I've done well, please leave a review, I'll take all constructive criticism on board. As always, thanks for taking the time to read this story, I hope you're enjoying it._**


	4. Echoes of the Past

She was here, Samus Aran had actually shown up, after two months of waiting, organizing these operations, she'd finally come out of hiding. The woman responsible for hijacking the station paced quickly up and down the control room, breathing heavily, it had all been well and good in theory, but now that she had actually shown up…the thought that the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy was hunting her down was somewhat terrifying.

The security camera feeds informed her that Samus was currently investigating the ship those Federation marines had arrived in, not entirely surprising, it would make things even harder to explain though, she had tried to keep a bit of moral high ground by letting the civilians off the station, but soldiers weren't exactly the types who would turn and run just because you had a gun. That said, it wasn't like there was going to be much explaining, that wasn't why she had lured Samus here, there was a much more simple reason behind it all.

The woman stopped and took a deep breath before sighing heavily, closing her eyes and focusing on calming herself, at this stage it wouldn't be long before Samus showed up here, if she wasn't ready she'd end up dead, it was as simple as that. She knew full well that her Chozo Varia suit was powerful, the fight would be far from even, she only had one trump card, and if her mind wasn't in the right place, she'd miss her opportunity.

Pulling a large pistol from a holster on her thigh she examined the weapon, holding it carefully in her two gloved hands, whether or not this would actually work was something she honestly didn't know, but right now, it was her best shot. Flicking a switch on the side, the weapon began to hum gently as she let the hand holding it fall to her side while she made her way over to the control console, over which lay a bulky device, about the size of the gun she was holding, as well as a simple jacket, a uniform, seemingly 'borrowed' from one of the station's staff.

Stopping at the console, she reached down and picked up the device, quickly checking over it before attaching it to the barrel of her pistol, the hum of the weapon suddenly shifting to a slightly more aggressive tone as it did so, while it still wasn't particularly loud, if you could hear it, you certainly wouldn't want to get hit by it. With her weapon ready, she set it down for a few moments on the desk as she picked up the jacket and quickly put it on over the top of her full-body, gunmetal coloured jumpsuit before picking it up again and turning towards the door.

Her eyes turned to the illuminated Federation emblem above the door, she didn't really have anything against the Federation to be perfectly honest, she was only targeting them because she knew Samus had quite strong connections with them, even if they were pretty shaky at this point in time. But in the end, a target was a target, and she quickly snapped her weapon up and pulled the trigger, a large bolt of yellow energy, crackling with electricity shot out of the barrel and slammed into the very centre of the emblem, shattering the glass and quickly overloading the lights behind it, the whole thing sparking as the glass fell to the floor. The woman smiled with satisfaction as she looked down at her weapon, her aim was still perfect. Ultimately, all she needed was one shot anyway, the outcome of this encounter would be decided by whether or not she could keep Samus on the back foot, and this would give her a perfect opportunity to make the most of it.

Glancing over at the security feed again, she noted that Samus was making a beeline for the control room. It wasn't surprising, where else would she be on a station like this, but that was just what she wanted, everything was set up, all that was left was to execute it. As she watched Samus get closer and closer to where she was waiting her grip around her gun tightened…her brain was finally starting to process that the person she had been chasing after for over a decade was finally going to be in the same room as her…

"Samus…"

Her empty hand tightened into a fist, for all the nervousness she had felt before, now she was just angry, this woman had taken everything from her, and now it was time to share just a little of that despair.

* * *

Samus came to a halt outside the door that lead into the assembly hall, the one room lying between her and the control room, taking cover beside the round, blue-shielded door.

"Adam, you got anything?" Keeping her voice quiet as she reached her hand over to the control panel beside the door, she could have opened it quickly by firing, but it would be quieter to open it manually, and given she still didn't know exactly who she was dealing with, she'd take a bit of stealth if she could get it.

"There's a single life form in the control room, it seems to be human, you'll need to get closer if you want me to get you anything more detailed." The voice of her ship's AI came to her through her helmet as Samus nodded, that was all she needed to know. So it really had only been one person, and human, it really had been a good idea to keep careful, any human capable of single-handedly fighting off an entire squad of marines wasn't to be taken lightly, even by her.

Her fingers quickly typing a quick security code, Samus opened the door and slipped into the assembly hall. The room itself was rather square and spacious, an open floor with the door to the rest of the station on the wall behind her and, on an elevated platform on the far wall lay the door to the control room, two sets of stairs branching out from either side of the platform led down to the floor. Each of the side walls was dominated by huge windows that looked out into space, automatically tinting to shield anyone within from the full light of the nearby star.

No sooner had Samus had a chance to check the room before she realized she wasn't alone, on the platform, having just come through the door herself, was another woman, she can't have been too different in age to Samus herself, given her appearance. She had long, raven-black hair, pale green eyes, sharp features and an overall athletic build, she wasn't quite as tall as Samus, but was still well above average, she was clothed in a standard Federation uniform, grey and blue, over the top of what seemed to be a metallic jumpsuit, something about that nagged Samus, but she ignored it. Of course, her appearance wasn't exactly what caught her attention, rather it was the large pistol she held that was aimed directly at the bounty hunter.

Not that Samus was particularly worried, her eyes glancing up at her suits energy reading, 99 units in the current tank with another dozen if that one failed, it wasn't physically possible for any weapon that size to be powerful enough to take her down in one hit, and if she opened fire first it would just give her an excuse to retaliate, although for now she'd try and avoid combat, she had questions.

"Can I guess you're the one who hijacked this station?" Lowering her arm cannon and striding into the centre of the room in a show of confidence, Samus posed the question, not exactly expecting an answer.

"Samus…" As the word came out of the woman's mouth, Samus immediately knew this was someone with a grudge, there was a hate in that voice, an anger she didn't quite understand. She couldn't remember ever having seen this woman before, but she supposed with her job, it was quite possible she'd still managed to do something worth hating her for.

"Why did you go so far to find me?" Stepping forward as she asked her second question, Samus kept her weapon lowered, both to show she wasn't about to start a fight, and to show she didn't fear her opponent. While the pistol did seem to be a somewhat familiar model, Samus couldn't quite put her finger on exactly where she'd seen it before though, but that was likely because it seemed to have a rather large modification to the barrel. If she fired at the minute, it would actually be a buff to Samus, she could check the level of damage it did, and if it didn't do much, which was likely, even with a modification like that, there were limits to how powerful a gun of that size could be, she could just stand there unfazed, which should work well as an intimidation tactic, if it was powerful enough to be a threat though, she'd still have an idea of how dangerous her opponent was.

"Why was it you…" The next words the woman spoke weren't exactly directed at Samus, but she heard them none the less and it somewhat stumbled her a bit? Why was it her? What did she mean by that, what had happened that…

Samus' thoughts were suddenly cut off as the woman pulled the trigger, a bolt of energy flying from the barrel of the pistol, even if she had been intending too, she had let herself get to distracted to dodge.

As the bolt hit, for a split second Samus was satisfied with the results, the moment the bolt hit, her suit noted that it only took twenty units of energy to absorb the blast, she could take that another dozen times and still have plenty of energy to fight on. However, that reassurance was short lived, as the power suit suddenly began to spasm, electrical currents running over it, different sections locking and unlocking, the visor flickering…this shouldn't be possible, there was nothing the Federation had designed that even came close to being able to stun Chozo tech.

Struggling against the involuntary movements of the suit, Samus looked back up at the woman just in time to see her holster her pistol away and quickly strip off the jacket, Samus' eyes widening as she did so, the bodysuit she was wearing underneath, except for the change in colour, gun-metal grey instead of blue, white instead of pink, was exactly the same as her own zero suit.

Samus' fears were confirmed as the woman raised one hand in front of her face as the emblem on the back of her suit flashed, the one on her left hand following suit as she brought her right hand to her wrist before jumping forward, using her left hand to vault over the rail as the emblem on her left breast flashed and her entire body was suddenly shrouded with a bright light.

The sound when she hit the ground was that of a heavy, metal object striking another, and sure enough, as the light faded, the woman was clad in a Chozo power suit. Immediately Samus was able to recognize that the suit wasn't exactly the same as her own, the flattened shoulder pads and the lighter armour informed her that her opponent was still using a basic power suit, she wouldn't have the extra shielding or environmental protection provided by the varia suit. The colour scheme was different though, where Samus' suit was a light orange, her's was the colour of dried blood, with the slightest tint of pink, and where Samus' was red, her's was a bright white, the colour of her visor and the lights on her suit were also a pale, sky blue rather than green.

The woman immediately took up a stance, legs ready to push her to either side should Samus start firing, body turned sideways to present less of a target, of course, arm cannon aimed directly at Samus, while her free hand was held up beside her face, almost pointing at Samus.

The overload of Samus' own suit quickly passed, but not before Samus received a few hits from the woman's power beam, not that she was at all worried, barely registering the single point of energy that each shot cost her. As soon as she had control over her arm, she immediately brought her hand to her visor again and activated it's scanner, her opponent noted what she was doing and started strafing, trying to keep Samus from locking on, but it was a futile task, Samus had dealt with much more nimble opponents in the past.

"Adam, I want to hear what you find the _instant_ you get this data!" Samus growled into her helmet mic as she pressed the invisible button on the side of her helmet, beginning the scan. What was going on? Why was there someone else who could wear a Chozo power suit? This wasn't the first time she'd fought another power suit user, Metroid Prime had stolen the Phazon suit and some of the data of her power suit and used into to revive as Dark Samus, and the X parasite had mimicked her as well in her last mission for the federation. But this time was completely different, it wasn't a clone, even if he hadn't been sure, the life signs hadn't been exceptional enough for Adam to assume she was anything but human, and unlike the others, this one actually seemed to be using inferior equipment.

Forcing herself to hold fire, for now wanting answers, Samus kept on the defensive, easily dodging the rapid fire shots from her opponents weapon, although she had to acknowledge this woman's aim, but even the shots that got through were ineffective, a quick glance at her energy levels told Samus that even a thousand successful hits wouldn't be enough to bring her down.

"Samus, that's a fully authentic Chozo power suit, it matches the readings from your own almost perfectly, the only differences I can detect seem to be aesthetic. The user is human from what I can tell, although, like yourself, I'm detecting traces of Chozo, which explains her being able to use the suit."

There was another who had been infused with Chozo DNA? That worried Samus, how could something like that have gone unnoticed by her, not only was Chozo DNA extremely rare now that the species was extinct, but the whole process of modified a human like that took years and massive amounts of specialized equipment, how could something like this have gone on and her not pick up even a hint of it. More than that, unless it was done at a young age, before puberty, the procedure wouldn't work, so this had to have happened at least twenty years ago, around the same time as she did herself if Samus was right in guessing there wasn't much separating their age.

"Some good news though, that suit is basically all she has. I'm reading the power suit itself, the combat visor, the arm cannon, the power beam, and some junk data which, like I said, seems to deal with different aesthetics. She's got no missile launcher, morph ball, grapple, charge beam, varia feature, I'm not even detecting a scan visor or any additional energy tanks. With that said, I think I can bring you up a perfectly accurate energy readout for her, if you want her alive, I'd be careful, your weapons are far more powerful than her defences, if you don't want to kill her, you'll have to hold back."

A solid bar appeared beneath Samus' own energy display in her visor, the word 'Unknown' below it, calculating an opponent's durability was something her suit was more than capable of, but in this case, it was overly simplistic, it was simply using her own data and applying it. This imposter would only have 99 energy, so it wouldn't take much to bring her down, Samus still had full use of her equipment after all, this wasn't even a real fight, if the worst came to it, she could just drop a power bomb and be done with it, but for now…

Samus swiped her hand across her visor again, the screen flashing green as she brought back the combat display and immediately began charging her arm cannon, two or three charge beams should be more than enough to take care of this, and then they could sit down and have a nice long chat about just what was going on.

The instant the beam was charged, Samus spun around and fired, perfectly anticipating her opponents movements, the heavy burst of energy finding its target just below the imposter's right ribs, knocking her back a few feet and forcing her to her knees. Glancing at her visor's readout, Samus noted that the shot did roughly 30 units of damage, give or take, two more shots and this would be over.

Not hesitating to begin charging her beam, Samus was almost disappointed when she saw her opponent's reaction, as soon as the imposter stood up she charged straight towards Samus, firing desperately with the power beam…what was she really hoping to achieve? Just because the arm cannon was her main weapon didn't mean she was only skilled in ranged combat.

Just as Samus prepared to counter, a flurry of sparks appeared around the imposter's armoured hand, the one held close to her visor, before a moment later, claws of blue energy formed at the end of each of her fingers. Rotating her body, thrusting her new claws forwards, Samus was too slow to react, not expecting this, Adam hadn't gotten a read on this, and it wasn't an upgrade she had ever obtained, she simply wasn't prepared, the best she could do was dodge it enough that the claws at least wouldn't hit her actual body, but they still hit the large shoulder pad on her right, the glowing blades sinking deep into the metal.

It was then Samus became extremely worried, a moment after those claws came into contact with her suit, her suit's alerts went off, an alarm ringing in her ears, warning her that her suit was suffering massive damage, that modules data was being disrupted. Not that she needed any of the alerts to know what was going on was dangerous, the fact that her energy levels were dropping rapidly, even Metroids gave her more time to think, was enough to throw her ideas of keeping this woman alive out the window.

Without a moment's hesitation, Samus brought her fully charged arm cannon right to the centre of the imposter's chest, the end of the barrel splitting into four segments as she did so, the energy gathered around the weapon being absorbed within, it would probably hurt herself to do this at point blank range, but at this rate, it was better than the alternative. With a resounding explosion and a cloud of black smoke, Samus pulled the trigger and fired a super missile, knocking both her and the imposter to opposite sides of the room.

Samus landed on her back and lay there for few moments, trying to get her bearings, her suit was complaining, informing her of various system malfunctions…it was just like the Orpheon again, most of her modules had been damaged, she at least still had a few energy tanks and her missile launcher though, even if she didn't have any ammo and her energy was flashing red, warning her that she only had 43 units left.

Knowing she shouldn't just lay about though, Samus pushed herself to her feet, noticed as she stood up that she had lost her varia suit as well…this was just perfect. As she straightened, she heard a noise from the other side of the room and turned to the rapidly dissipating cloud of smoke between her and the imposter to see the other woman pushing herself to her own feet, although she seemed to be worse off than Samus, that super missile had completely drained her suits energy, if they were to continue, she wouldn't stand a chance, not with just a zero suit.

"I guess…I should have…expected as much." The woman spoke out between coughs as she turned to Samus, at the same time holding up her left hand, revealing a small, black device with a single red button, that her thumb was firmly pressed down on. "In ten minutes this…station will be completely destroyed…if you want to know why…I'm here, you'd better check the control room…while there's time."

Samus had immediately brought up her arm cannon when she noticed what was obviously a detonator, but quickly lowered it when she realized it was too late to do anything. "Adam…what do you think?" Whispering into her mic so that the imposter wouldn't hear, she decided to check with Adam, he should be able to give a bit of advice on whether or not she was bluffing.

"In both previous instances the stations were indeed destroyed, although the size of bomb required to do so…I should be able to detect it, but there's nothing there. That detonator definitely sent out a signal though, and given that this isn't the first time this has happened, I would assume she's being serious. That said, if she's given us ten minutes, that should be more enough time for me to copy the data, if you think you can subdue her quickly enough, we can get both."

Samus nodded subtly before raising her arm cannon again and taking aim, "Sorry, but I can work a little quicker than you give me credit for."

The other woman seemed unfazed by this, and in a swift movement drew a second detonator from her belt and pressed the button, "Well, now you have five minutes."

"Samus, that's a problem, I may be an AI, but there are still limits to how quickly I can transfer data, you'll have to choose one or the other, and quickly." Samus scowled under her helmet as Adam informed her of the problem which she had already guessed at, but it didn't matter, they didn't need _all_ the information, if she just got Adam to copy anything high priority, that would give her enough to work with. But before she could the woman drew her pistol, which Samus now recognized as a paralyzer, just like her own, but with an attachment that allowed it to fire instant charged shots, as well as a third detonator.

"I'm going to leave, if you don't let me, the timer will go down to one minute, and I'll go down fighting, if you really think that you can apprehend me and get off this station in less than sixty seconds, be my guest." As she spoke, the woman began stepping towards the door that led back into the main station, in just a few steps she'd be there, Samus had to think fast.

But really, there wasn't a choice, Samus knew she had good aim, enough that it wouldn't be a quick fight, even if she was unarmoured, and while she likely didn't know, her own suit didn't have enough energy to take many hits from that, especially as it would immobilize her for a few seconds with each hit.

With that in mind, Samus could do nothing but watch as she arrived at the door and opened it, taking one step through it before kneeling down and sliding the final detonator across the floor towards Samus. "You'd better work fast, we need to settle this another day." With that said, she immediately started sprinting down towards the hangers, leaving Samus alone in the sudden silence of the station.

"Damn it."

Turning towards the stairs, Samus ran up towards the control room and immediately over to the main console where, with a few simple commands, linked the stations databanks to her gunship and, by extension, Adam.

"Adam, get as much information as you can from these databanks, prioritize classified or encoded files, especially looking for any other installations that aren't publically known." Samus sat down at the console as Adam wordless got to work, a quick tap of a button on the side of her helmet caused it to glow briefly before fading away. Bringing a hand to her head, she closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts…who was that woman? Why had gone so far to lure her out here? Why could she equip a Chozo power suit? What was that weapon she had used? And why, after everything, had she just fled? It didn't make any sense to her, she didn't have any idea who this was, and if she had _any_ connection to someone who could use a Chozo power suit, she would definitely know about it. Just what grudge did this person have against her?

"Samus! We've got 40 seconds left!" Adam's voice suddenly pulled Samus from her thoughts, had it already been that long? Not that they had had much time anyway. "I've piloted the ship outside the station and disabled the shielding and bulkheads on the right hand window in the assembly hall, break it and I'll intercept you, there's not enough time for you to get to the hanger, disconnecting from the station now."

No sooner had Adam told Samus the plan than she stood up, restoring her helmet and sealing her suit for a vacuum before running towards the door, firing at the blue shield, making use of the emergency opening system. When she entered the hall, she didn't bother with the stairs, immediately jumping off the platform as she turned and opened fire on the window. Without it's additional shielding and bulkheads online it was nothing more than a thick panel of glass and quickly shattered after just a single shot from the military-grade weapon. The sudden venting of the room pulled Samus out and into the void, an orange glint beneath her letting her know that Adam was already there. Landing neatly on the hatch on the top of her ship, her magnetic boots anchoring her firmly to the vessel, Samus craned her neck back to watch the station as Adam made some distance before, exactly five minutes after that woman had pressed the detonator, a series of explosions, dozens of them, rocked the station, each on strategically placed to cause massive structural failure. That woman really had been smart, Adam hadn't been able to detect the bomb because it was part of the station, she had somehow hacked into the station's scuttling charges and linked them to her own timers and detonators. Taking only a few moments to watch as the station came apart, Samus soon pressed a single button on her arm cannon and she was carried down into the ship, the hatch closing behind her. This wasn't over, she would find that woman again, and next time she would make sure she found out just where she came from and why she could use Chozo equipment, she had been wondering why she came back, and now she had a reason.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _ **And here's the introduction of one of the main character's you'll meet in Metroid Savior, I won't divulge her full story, but as the story progresses, you can learn more about her by reading 'Tale of a Savior' which is a fanfic that accompanies this one, it's not vital to read it to understand this one, but if you like more exposition and backstory on original characters, you might find it worth reading, I will be updating it next, so chapter five of History will be a little late but it will be out before Christmas. Thank you for reading, if you have anything to say, positive or negative, please leave a review and I'll do my best to take any advice you might have on board.**_


	5. The New Enemy

"Tell me there was something there that made this trip worth it." Her suit disappearing in a flash of light as she sat down at the pilot's seat, Samus' voice made it clear she wasn't in any sort of mood to be receiving bad news, she needed to know that they hadn't returned after two years to be beaten by some impostor and end up with just a few confidential messages from Federation researchers.

"There's a lot of information here Samus, it's going to take days, at least, for me to sort through it all, and that's not even taking into the account whatever time I might need to decrypt some of the files." Samus brought her hands together and sighed deeply as Adam replied, that wasn't what she wanted to hear, but at the same time, she knew getting angry at the computer was pointless, like he had said earlier, he may be an AI, but there were still limits on his processing power, and they had just stolen an entire station's information, finding something worthwhile would take time.

"That said, as smart as our hijacker seems to be, she did miss a few things, such as the record of which files have been accessed, I was able to copy that as well, and it includes files opened since the station was captured." Samus immediately looked up, suddenly feeling a lot more confident about their chances of finding something worthwhile, but those feelings were soon accompanied by caution.

"If she's smart enough to know how to single-handedly hijack a station like that without her identity being revealed, reprogram scuttling charges and link them to her own timers and detonators and get past military grade encryption to alter the stations defenses, I wouldn't rely on her being stupid enough not to delete her browsing history. If there's something there we should either assume it isn't important, or she wants me to see it." That fact in and of itself didn't really change Samus' opinion on what to do however, they didn't really have anything else to go on, if it was a trap, she couldn't ignore it, but at least this time she could go into the situation with full awareness of who she was dealing with, and that it definitely was a trap, designed for her…but at the same time, she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't exactly a trap, the imposter didn't strike her as someone dishonest. The last Samus had seen of her, she had willingly, without even being asked, handed over the final detonator…she couldn't see any other reason why except to prove that she wasn't going to go back on her word and secretly activate it the moment she left the door. In the same way, if the woman's goal was simply to kill Samus, she could have done so far more easily if she had just reactivated the station's defenses before she had even landed…no, it felt clear to Samus that what her opponent this time was looking for, wasn't simply to kill her, but to best her. But that simply begged the question of why? There could be any number of reasons for that though, even after she was wanted by the Federation, the name of Samus Aran was still an ideal for bounty hunters around the galaxy, she was still a savior to many millions of people, she was still seen as the protector of the galaxy…it was only natural that there would be some out there who were jealous of her title or of her strength. But again, she felt there had to be something more to it, after all, this was someone who had Chozo DNA and the same type of power suit as she had herself, it wouldn't be such a clear cut case of someone wanting to be the galaxy's best bounty hunter, there was something more personal about it. And what she had said before they fought seemed to verify that, 'why was it you?' What did that question mean, what had Samus done? And why did it seem that the problem was specifically because _she_ had done it? She didn't know…

"I can't exactly argue with that, other than a few inter-system communications, the audio wasn't recorded, there is only one file of any note. The latest report from an outpost on GS841 in the Mereges system. That area of Federation space was hit pretty early on in the war and both forces have since left it, there was nothing of critical importance to the Federation to remain entrenched there, and the worlds have nothing important enough that the pirates could afford to waste ships and troops keeping the area secured. However, this report from GS841 indicates the presence of a single pirate cruiser on the planet, so there's obviously something here, but something both sides seem to be trying to keep under cover…and this report here seems to have confirmed it." Samus leaned back in the pilot's seat and listened quietly as Adam explained what he had found, leaning forward again as he brought a portion of the document up on the main monitor, a single line highlighted.

'… **have confirmed the presence of major Chozo ruins…'**

Of course if there were intact Chozo ruins that hadn't been discovered by the Federation the Space Pirates would be interested, several times Samus had fought Pirates equipped with technology they reverse-engineered from Chozo-tech, on Tallon IV, they even used prototypes that were directly based on her own equipment. More than that, it was obvious why this would be a place where that impostor was likely to go; she had only won that previous battle because Samus hadn't been expecting her to have such a powerful melee module, if Samus had known in advance to watch out for an attack like that, it never would have landed. In that case, in any future battles, the winner would be decided by either skill, which Samus honestly had to confess she didn't feel too superior in at this stage, or by equipment, and Chozo ruins often contained stockpiles of gear that was compatible with power suit technology. How many times had she herself been able to retrieve gear she had lost by visiting ruins? The imposter was likely planning on searching the ruins to improve her own equipment, if that was the case, this was almost a race as to who could find the items first, and her opponent had a significant head start.

"Anything else you can tell me about the planet?" Samus stood up as she spoke and made her way to a cabinet at the back wall, entering a quick code into the lock before opening it.

"It's a 53-hour flight from our current location, has a stable atmosphere, gravity is pretty heavy, but not enough to inhibit a human colony if it was attempted, indeed, there was a rather secretive research facility present there, but apparently it was destroyed when the cruiser first made planet-fall. The outpost that's still active is manned by a single squad of Federation Marines, Samson Squad, I don't actually have any other data on them unfortunately, they seem to have been formed since the B.S.L. incident. The report is time-stamped at 24 local days ago, they seemed to be holding well and have the pirates in a stalemate of sorts, but I can't find any more recent communications from them, so I can't tell you what the current situation is."

As Adam mentioned the journey time, Samus reached into the cabinet and took out a small container, opening it and removing two small, white tablets before returning it to the cabinet and sealing it.

"You know that long-sleep isn't healthy, even for you, are you sure you wouldn't rather use the stasis pod?" Noting what Samus was doing, Adam's mechanical tone managed to get across the fact he didn't approve, but he knew enough from her actions that she had decided they were heading to the planet and began plotting a course, preparing to pilot it himself.

"I need to rest…not just skip a bit of time, I'll trust you with getting us there safely, although I should be awake before we finish the jump." As she spoke, Samus knelt down and pressed a button on the back wall, close to the floor, causing several panels on the floor to slide underneath adjacent panels and a simple bed to rise up from the storage area beneath. While it would indeed be easier, and Adam was right that the medication one had to use to keep themselves in a state of 'natural' sleep during hyperspace travel, with the situation as it was, Samus felt she needed to relax. And relaxing wasn't exactly something one could do in stasis, it would make the travel seemingly instantaneous, but she'd leave exactly the same she went in, and that would include her mental state.

That said, most people wouldn't exactly see this bed as one you could really relax in, while the mattress looked comfortable enough, there were no covers or pillows, and three restraining bands were positioned along it at intervals. Although anyone used to long distance space travel knew that it wasn't unusual for ships to have to take sudden evasive action if they came along a stray field of asteroids for example, and it was much more comfortable to sleep tied to your bed than wake up with your head broken open against the wall.

"If we do arrive before I wake up, do as much as you can to gather data on the situation, but prioritize keeping us hidden, high orbit, minimal emissions." Samus didn't have much doubt she would wake up in time, each tablet could effectively knock someone out for up to 30 hours, but that was a maximum, the normal was closer to 28, and with her enhancements and metabolism, she would be lucky to get 24 hours out of each, so she should easily have at least 5 hours between waking up and them actually arriving, but it was always worth having a backup plan, just in case.

"Understood, the course is plotted, I'll jump as soon as you're out." As Adam spoke, Samus sat down on the side of the bed, looking down for the briefest moment at the tablets before bringing them to her mouth and swallowing them, immediately afterwards swinging her legs onto the bed and tightening the first band just below her knees, by the time the few seconds that took was finished she was already feeling drowsy, but not enough to stop her from securing herself, tightening the second band around her waist and the third around the top of her chest and under her arms. She barely had time to relax before her eyes closed and she blacked out.

Despite her hopes, Samus' sleep was not restful, it was seemed to be over almost instantly, the only fleeting dream a blurry image of a circular room, like an arena, with a domed roof, sunlight filtering in through slits in the ceiling. Hosts of bird-like humanoids, Chozo, chattered on elevated seats above her, looking down at her, she felt like she was a criminal being judged. She didn't know whether this was one of her memories, one of her early ones from when she was still a young child, it certainly wasn't something she could explicitly remember, but at the same time, it didn't feel like it was something that didn't happen. But that was all she saw, for just a few seconds it felt like, before her eyes sprung open, the familiar ceiling of her gunship greeting her as she woke.

Samus had hoped a bit of normal sleep would help her mind relax, but if anything, she felt more uneasy now, not only had she to deal with trying to figure out who that woman was, but this unwanted memory, for some reason, made her feel so isolated, she was used to being alone, but now it felt like that was no longer her choice…

"Samus, are you okay? We're still four hours out, no problems so far, and we've passed the only area of major conflict without detection, so we should arrive safely and quietly." At first Samus didn't respond to Adam, trying to force her memories back further, trying to see if she could find where that scene was from. But after a few moments, she gave up, thinking too much about it wouldn't do her any good.

Quickly undoing the restraints, she sat up and took a quick look around, nothing had changed, of course it hadn't…why did she feel so uneasy in the safety of her own ship, travelling at a speed that would make any sort of attack or boarding impossible?

"I'm fine, find anything else in the files you downloaded?" Bothering Adam with her worries wasn't something Samus was willing to do, partly because in the end, he was still based on her old CO, but mainly because, ultimately, he was still just her ships computer, and to be frank, her pride wouldn't permit her to accept counselling from a spacecraft.

"Nothing groundbreaking, turns out the Bottle Ship and the B.S.L. aren't the only bio-weapon research facilities the Federation have tucked away however, but you had already guessed as much. If you want I can bookmark their locations in case you want to get rid of them." As Adam spoke Samus swung her legs over the side of the bed and got up before turning, entering a quick command into the wall console to return the bed to its storage area. He was right that Samus wasn't surprised about the discovery of further bio-weapon facilities, honestly, it had been starting to get to the stage where if she hadn't been forced out of the Federation's good books she would have left herself. In Skytown, a floating Chozo city that had been occupied and re-purposed by the Federation, she had found they had been storing and experimenting with metroids, the tanks they were in had been heavily sealed, yet they had been infected with phazon to such high levels they had mutated into a completely new strain, she had kept quiet about it, but that had been when she had first realized that the Federation was engaged in secretive bio-weapon development. After that, the Federation had been all too happy to accept the Baby after she had finished exterminating the metroid on SR388, they hadn't really gotten much of a chance to do anything with it, but she could only guess what might have happened. And then there was the Bottle Ship incident and that mess with the X parasite, both times the Federation seemed to be involved with the breeding of metroids and other creatures that were not only aggressive, but powerful enough to damage her suits shielding. The Bottle Ship incident was undeniably a bio-weapons project and while she hadn't found any definite evidence aboard the B.S.L., she supposed it was entirely possible that, after what had happened in the former incident, they had taken extra measures to ensure that there were no conclusive records.

"Keep a record, but don't bother wasting too much time, I didn't come back here just to turn into the terrorist they claim I am, once I've gotten whatever issue our hijacker has with me dealt with, we can see about investigating them and seeing if any of them are worth taking out." Samus made her way back to the pilots seat, partially reactivating her suit before she sat down, leaving her head uncovered, her arm cannon off, instead her right arm covered in the same orange gauntlet as her left, surprised a little when her varia suit didn't form, she'd forgotten she had been reduced to just her power suit by that last encounter, though she thought she'd be used to losing equipment suddenly by now.

"Talking of her, I did actually find a few clues about her, it's not much though." The time it took from the moment Adam's words reached Samus' ears to the moment she replied was almost immeasurably short, if there was anything, _anything_ , he could tell her about who she was dealing with, she wanted to hear it.

"Tell me everything."

There was a slight pause as Adam brought up some sections of the relevant documents on one of the side monitors before he began to summarize his findings. "Hunter Syn, can't confirm it but I doubt it's her real name, few hunters are as bold as you are. The Federation have nothing on her but a handful of minor offences, damaging public property and causing harm to civilians, no record of her ever being caught or punished, and given the nature of the crimes, it's likely the damage done was simply an unfortunate side-effect of whatever jobs she was actually hired to do, but no recorded cases of serious property damage or manslaughter, so she seems to know a bit about damage control. Nothing exceptional up until just over a year ago when she started taking very high profile jobs for major research firms and some individual members of the Federation government. Seems after you left the Federation made it illegal to hire bounty hunters to deal with government affairs, but that only stopped them from making that decision as a group, nothing stopped individuals from making requests. The biggest thing here is that seven months ago, she was actually mistaken for you."

Adam paused for a moment to display a certain file, in and of itself it appeared to be an official report on a news articles, but the articles itself was indented, and that was what he was highlighting, a blurry image that, while at first many wouldn't exactly realize what it was, but the title would soon make that clear.

' **Samus Returns?'**

The picture was dominated by a red and white armored figure in a suit that Samus knew all too well, it was the same type she'd worn herself, countless times, and just recently she had fought against someone wearing one that looked exactly the same.

"I'm sure you're well aware of the fact that this couldn't possibly be you, and given the color scheme and stance, as well as the fact that it's an operational Chozo power suit, I have no doubt that this is Syn. For a few weeks she had the Federation up in arms trying to hunt her down before they became aware she wasn't actually you, combined with the imminent threat of the Pirate invasion, they abandoned the search for her. After that there's a few more records of her working jobs, very similar to ones you would accept, but nothing major, and starting two months ago, she just disappears, just before the first station hijacking. Unfortunately, that's all we've got to work on, a name that's likely fake, some minor criminal charges and a list of jobs that is likely only just a sample of what she's actually been involved in."

Samus remained silent the whole time Adam spoke, carefully taking in everything and reading the documents displayed on the monitor, there really wasn't all that much though, nowhere near as much as she would have liked. It would have been nice to have something about her background, where she came from, if she could figure out a little about what she was doing as a child, she might be able to figure out how and when she got those Chozo modifications, but any good bounty hunter knew how to hide information like that, Samus knew she certainly kept a close eye on what could be found out about her own past.

That said, what Adam had found out did give Samus a bit more to work on, Hunter Syn had been active at the same time she was, judging from the dates on some of the files, but it was only relatively recently that she was spotted with the power suit, that quite possibly could reveal that it was only recently she obtained the suit, that or she was deliberately avoiding using it. But the only reason Samus could think of that she might want to hide the suit, is that it would obviously drawn her attention, and she'd rather not have the galaxy's greatest hunter chasing her, but given how there was only a five month gap between her first being seen with the suit, and the first bait being placed to bring them together, she doubted this woman was afraid of meeting her, so her only finding the suit recently seemed more likely. That at least cleared up one thing that might have been a possibility, Syn hadn't been entrusted with the suit by the Chozo, like she had, the Chozo had been extinct for years, so if she only obtained the suit recently, she probably discovered it in one of the ruins, the question remained though as to how she had gotten the genetic modifications that allowed her to make us of it.

"Keep searching, and let me know the instant you find anything that seems even the slightest bit important." Samus leaned back in the chair and glanced down at the ship's main control panel, there were still a couple of hours left before they arrived at GS841, there wasn't much for her to do at this stage though but to wait it out, at the very least she could spend the time deciding on an appropriate course of action. If the last report was still an accurate image of the situation, there was a functional Federation outpost manned by a squad of marines, a Pirate cruiser that had presumably landed to investigate occupy the Chozo ruins, as well as a suspicious research facility that had been destroyed, although to what extent was unknown, so it might still make a functional base. What was the best way to approach the situation?

It didn't really take Samus too long to come to a conclusion, given the lack of further communications from the outpost, chances were they were either wiped out, which seemed a bit strange given how the previous message had referred to the situation as a stalemate, or their communications were damaged, which wasn't entirely unlikely, especially if they were being attacked by Space Pirates, or they were deliberately trying to avoid sending any extra-solar signals, trying to keep their location hidden. And if there was any chance she might find someone who might be friendly, it would be there, the Federation might have labelled her a criminal and a terrorist, but she knew many marines thought quite highly of her, and in a situation like this, she could probably use a few helping hands.

Perhaps presuming they were still alive was a bit of a leap of faith, but Samus had a feeling a full squad of Federation marines wouldn't go down too easily, especially if they were entrenched in a prebuilt outpost. After all, the crew of the Tyr lasted much longer that she would have expected, given that they only had the ship they arrived in, enough ammunition to cover a patrol run and were fighting creatures far stronger than anything that could occur naturally. Besides, the Chozo had a habit of building near areas where aggressive creatures, lived, using them as a sort of natural deterrent, so if the pirates were trying to explore the ruins, they'd have more problems than just the Federation.

So that was the plan, she'd arrive and first confirm whether or the marines were alive, if they were, she'd try and land as close to the outpost as possible and make contact, if they weren't…well, she'd treat this situation the same as she had Tallon IV, she knew there were Space Pirates present, at least Ridley wouldn't be present this time, so she'd land someone out of the way, where her ship wasn't likely to be found, and begin recon on foot.

While she didn't have any issues with the plan, she had a sinking feeling in her gut, comparing anything to the situation at Tallon IV was probably a bad idea, what she had thought would be a simple recon job there turned into her saving an entire planet, not to mention starting off the chain of events that resulted in the Phazon incident…she could only pray this expedition wouldn't escalate in the same way.

* * *

 **Author's Note: _I've got no special points to make about this chapter other than to thank you for taking the time to read it. I had planned for Samus to actually land on GS841 and meet Samson squad in this chapter, but before I realized it I had already filled up my self-imposed word count (I try to keep all chapters between 3-4K words), so that'll have to wait till next time, but hopefully because of that, it will give me a better chance to make the most of that encounter. As always, if you see any points for improvement, feel free to let me know and I'll make sure to take your advice into consideration, and if you see something you like, let me know as well, so I know what to keep doing. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this one._**


	6. The First Alliance

Samus brought her arm up to shield her eyes from the bright light that burst into the ship's interior as the blast shields pulled back from the windows, letting the afternoon sun on GS841 illuminate the room as Adam spoke.

"Re-entry complete, keeping low and making our approach to the Federation outpost, I should be able to get it on camera in a couple of minutes, after that you'll have about another minute to decide whether to pull back or not, even if their long range scanner seemed offline their short range radar wasn't, the instant we get too close, they'll know."

They had exited hyperspace about half an hour ago, an initial scan of the planet, combined with the coordinates of the outpost they had found in one of the documents, showed the location of their target was at the top of a cliff by one of the planets largest oceans. All in all the planet seemed pretty tropical, warm weather, high humidity, native life was present, as well as an abundance of liquid water, certainly it would have been a valid candidate for Chozo colonization. Other than the base, they had been able to pinpoint the location of the research facility, although they hadn't obtained a visual, and given the unknown extent of the damage, it was best not to assume they would be able to land there. They had also located what they assumed to be the landed Pirate cruiser, given the massive energy readings coming from a clearing a few miles north-east of the outpost.

"You're sure the base isn't occupied?" Samus asked, keeping her eyes firmly on the land on the horizon that was slowly coming into view, glancing only occasionally at the large pillars of rock, each several hundred meters tall, that jutted out of the crystal clear ocean.

"I can say for certain, but initial, low-level scans seem to show that normal base functions, like lighting, heating and plumbing are all still operation and online, Pirates normally disable power sources when they find bases like this and start disassembly, so it doesn't quite match their MO."

There wasn't much else to say, Samus knew herself that Pirates were often unrestrained scavengers, if something wasn't theirs, they would quickly take it apart and turn it into something that was. So it seemed like a pretty sure bet that the marines of Samson Squad were still alive and fighting, which was, hopefully, a good thing.

"Coming into visual range now, bringing up one of the long range cameras." As Adam spoke, one of the side monitors lit up with a display, showing the grey steel walls of the Federation outpost on the top of a cliff, roughly 700 meters above the water, two landing pads extended out over the cliff, one was already occupied by a Anhur-Class patrol ship, presumably the squad's personal transport, the other pad was empty, which suited Samus just fine. There did, however, appear to be a second ship already docked, similar in size to the Anhur, but lacked the same width, and rather was longer and had a more uniform height, but it was obviously still of Federation design and seemed to be anchored directly to the base by its front rather than having 'landed'. Beyond that quick observation, it took Samus almost no time to conclude that the base wasn't occupied by Pirates, from what she could see, everything was in good condition, no signs of recent battle, or any other evidence of a hostile occupation, there was just one thing she wanted to confirm before she made the choice whether or not to pull out.

"What can you tell me about those two ships?"

There were a few, brief moments of silence as Adam scanned the docks before starting to explain his findings.

"The Anhur-Class is giving off no detectable emissions, it's likely it hasn't moved since Samson Squad deployed here. The other is an automated supply transport, ships like that are supposed to drop supplies off every three months, although given how faint the emissions from it are, it must have been here a couple of weeks at least, normally supply vessels land and leave the same day, it shouldn't be here anywhere near this long. I would imagine the Pirates likely have heavy anti-aircraft batteries established, direct prevention of a launch is the only situation I can imagine, automated ships like that have pre-programmed flight paths as well, it wouldn't fly low under the line of the cliff like we are now."

Samus sighed, heavy AA, that could be a problem if she ever needed a quick extraction from somewhere, but if the marines knew that it was a risk to their own ships, perhaps they might know the locations of the turrets, she'd shut Pirate defenses down before after all.

"Alright, keep on course, but keep us low right up until we reach the outpost, if things don't go to plan I want the ship to be in good enough condition to get us out of here, and fast." Looking down at her right hand as she spoke, she clenched her fingers into a fist as a bright glow began to surround her arm and head, fading after a few seconds, her helmet and arm cannon now ready. Even if the outpost was occupied by potential friendlies, she wasn't about to take any chances, even the marines might be her enemies this time around.

The approach to the outpost was uneventful and, other than a quick reminder about Adam that they had been noticed by the outpost's radar, it was silent as well. The gunship came right up to the cliff by the mainland the outpost was located on, its wings folding down into landing position before the craft began to ascend to the level of the landing pad and touched down.

Samus immediately stood up from her seat and stepped onto the panel just below the hatch in the ceiling, which promptly opened before the platform Samus stood on rose up, lifting her out of the ship. Taking a brief glance around, but not noting anything she hadn't already seen from the video feed, Samus took a single step forward before leaping off the ship's roof, somersaulting several times before landing, on one knee, on the short bridge connecting the main base to the landing pad, slowly getting to her feet before making her way over to the door as Adam complained over her comms.

"I know you probably think that looks cool and all, but is it really necessary to show off like that?"

That comment was completely ignored by the hunter as she pressed a button on the panel beside the circular door, the panels that made it up sliding apart, before stepping inside.

The interior of the base didn't possess any particularly interesting features, it reminded Samus of the Federation base on Norion, just on a much smaller scale, and without any of the complex equipment used in the core generators and planetary defense cannon. That said, as she made her way along the first corridor, a quick glance at the branching paths told her that something was amiss, all doors except the one directly in front of her, at the other end of the corridor, had their blast shields active, blocking her access. She had no doubts as to what this was, she was being directed, herded towards a particular area, and while she hadn't visited too many herself, she knew outposts like this had a standard blueprint, she was being directed to the main courtyard, the only open space in the building. Whether it was a Pirate trap, a Federation ambush, or simply some marines taking reasonable caution dealing with a wanted terrorist who was previously the galaxy's most renowned bounty hunter, she couldn't be certain, but whatever the case, she was fairly certain she could handle it.

Making her way to the other side of the corridor without breaking a stride, taking precaution herself, she shot the blue shield on the door, making use again of the emergency opening mechanic, keeping her arm cannon ready as the door opened and she stepped out into the sunlight.

"Miss. Aran. Missing for two years and suddenly you just happen to show up on my doorstep, talk about miracles."

The casual tone of the voice that greeted her, as well as the single Federation marine, silver armor glinting in the sun, told Samus that it was likely the latter of her previous ideas, simply precaution against a potentially dangerous criminal. If it had been a serious trap, they wouldn't have sent out just a single marine and even though his weapon was leveled squarely at Samus, she couldn't fault him, she was doing exactly the same.

"You sound pretty glad to see me, given what the Federation seems to think of me these days."

Lowering her cannon as she spoke, Samus took a few steps closer, the door closing behind her as she took a quick glance around, noting that there did seem to be a handful of other marines on balconies surrounding the courtyard. Given the state of her current equipment, she would have to try and handle things carefully, if they locked those doors and prevented her from leaving, she'd be trapped in a barrel.

"Don't get the wrong idea, we've been coping just fine without you, I'm sure we can keep doing so. What I do want to know is why you're here, especially seeing as the last Federation facility you entered ended up getting smashed into a planet and completely annihilated."

The marine lowered his weapon as well, his voice still not aggressive, but not exactly friendly, giving Samus the image of a cautious soldier, one who knew Samus was someone who was very likely an enemy, but someone much more desirable as a friend, that worked for her, he sounded like someone who would listen if she explained the situation, but she didn't want to seem like she was being forced into an explanation, it might just have been a petty grudge against the Federation, but she wanted to make sure these people knew that she was the one with the power here.

"You'll have to forgive me for not believing you, your last report, that was more than three weeks ago, told me you were in a stalemate, and given the supply transport docked here that was supposed to leave two weeks ago is still here, tells me that the situation hasn't improved any. And seeing as how that message doesn't seem to have been responded to with reinforcements of any kind, it doesn't appear the Federation can afford to give you any help. You might not need my help to survive, but I'm willing to bet that you need my help to win."

There were a few moments of silence after Samus spoke, neither being able to see each other's expression underneath their helmets, each having to rely entirely on body language and tone to discern the other's intent. Eventually however, the marine spoke again.

"I guess there's no point denying it then, we do need _something_ to tip the balance here, and given your reputation for blowing up anything related to the Space Pirates, the mighty Samus Aran might just be someone who could help."

Samus noted his emphasis on the word 'something' obviously trying to make it clear to her that he didn't think it was necessary that it was specifically her who came to their rescue, as well as the somewhat sarcastic way in which he referred to her.

"However, I can't very well just let a wanted terrorist into a secure facility and have free roam of the area just on her word, so I'm going to have to give you a couple of conditions. Firstly, like you said, the situation here is tense, as much as I know you like going off and doing your own thing, we're going to need you to help out here and there with certain situations in return for having access to areas under Federation control. Secondly, you do your best to try and keep the fact that you, Samus Aran, are here, unknown to the Pirates for as long as possible, they still hate you with a passion, and we'd rather not give them an excuse to pool all their resources on a full-frontal attack. We're only able to hold the line here because they've divided their forces between defending their cruisers, exploring and setting up outposts in the ruins, and keeping us in check. The moment they realize you're here, and associating with us, they're likely to get desperate. You think you can manage that?"

Samus scoffed at his question, asked in an obviously condescending way, she was interested to find out just who this guy was, for knowing who he was talking to, he certainly seemed confident. That said, she couldn't see any problem with the conditions, they were fair enough, at least he wasn't asking her to put herself under their command, if it was just helping out when needed, she could manage that. Although she wasn't about to just let him dictate all the conditions.

"I can't see a problem with that, but I have a couple of conditions of my own. Namely, I don't want to have to explain my reasons for being here or what I'm doing, I'll help you out when you need me, but otherwise, I want to be able to continue my own investigation without interference. Additionally, whenever I'm finished, I'll be leaving, as things are with my current relation to the GF, I have no reason to help out if it doesn't benefit me."

There was a slight pause as the marine considered, Samus wasn't surprised, the fact that he was the one here negotiating, he was likely in charge, and the potential consequences if what he allowed her to do here ended up badly, he'd be the one taking the fall. It was likely especially in regards to not questioning her actions, having to trust a wanted terrorist who had destroyed three planets to have free roam around a secret outpost and the surrounding ruins wasn't something anyone could take lightly. But eventually, the marine reached up to his right shoulder with his free hand and tapped a couple of buttons, a thing, mechanical arm extending from a portion of his back armor and over his shoulder. Raising his weapon up to the arm, it gripped the rifle, allowing him to pull his arm free before it retracted, locking the gun into place on his back, clearly making a show of trust by holstering his weapon.

"If that's the case, then let me be the first to welcome you to Outpost Hera, I'm Captain Daniel Samson, currently the commanding officer of all Federation forces on GS841."

As Daniel spoke, he offered his right hand, palm open, for Samus to shake, it was obviously a deliberate act, while it was likely he was right handed, given that was the arm he wielded his weapon in, if she wanted to accept the gesture, Samus would have to deactivate her own weapon. Given the situation however, she felt there was no harm in it, a quick command entered into her arm cannon and it disappeared in a flash of light, her arm once again covered only by the orange armor of her power suit as she stepped forward and took Daniel's hand in her own, not feeling the need to give her own name, seeing how there was no doubt he already knew her.

"Well, best you come in, I can give you a bit of a brief on the situation." Taking a step back as they both released their grip, Daniel gestured towards the door on the wall opposite where Samus had entered the courtyard, inviting her inside the facility. Not having any reason to refuse, rather, knowing a bit more about what was going on would make it easier for her to get around the area.

"Lead the way."

* * *

A minute later, Daniel had led Samus to the outpost's mess hall, which was presently empty. As he made his way to the center of the room he raised a hand to the front of his helmet, pressing a button on the side, causing the back of it to divide itself in two and hinge open, letting him remove his helmet. As he took it off he revealed a face that was surprisingly young, given that he was the commanding officer, she had expected him to be in his late thirties, early forties, but he seemed closer to his late twenties more than anything. His skin was tanned, whether that was how it was normally, or simply because he'd been stationed on a tropical world like this for a few months, Samus couldn't know. His pale brown hair, cut short, seemed to have the slightest tint of green to it, combined with his golden eyes, told her he was likely from somewhere in the Jesper cluster, that region was known for producing many of the Federation's most esteemed soldiers as well, so it would make sense.

While she preferred keeping her own face covered, at this point Samus didn't think it would be too worth it, giving how she was wanted, all Federation marines likely had already seen her face, and if Daniel wasn't going to keep himself hidden, it wouldn't be too polite to keep her own face hidden. Reaching up to the base of her helmet, she pressed a finger against the metal, a bright glow covering her head for a brief moment before fading, revealing her uncovered face as Daniel sat down at one of the tables, gesturing vaguely at the seats opposite himself.

"So, Captain Daniel Samson, was it? It might just be me, but I don't recall the Federation making a habit of naming squads after their commanders." While Samus knew it wasn't the most urgent topic, it was something that bothered her a little, well, perhaps 'bothered' was a strong word, it was just a simple curiosity. The Federation normally had regulations regarding how squads were to be named, and it normally had to do with the system of origin, almost always a serial number of sorts related to the year in which the colony was founded, she'd never heard of a squad named after their captain, and she doubted that in the whole Federation, this Samson squad just happened to end up with a captain of the same name.

"That's your first question?" Daniel set his helmet down on the table and gave his forehead a light scratch, "Can't blame you though, it is a bit of an oddity, but the only real reason is because of the situation we were formed in, just under two years ago this squad was put together under orders from the central parliament itself." Straightening up a little, he rested his elbows and hands on the table, bringing his palms together, "After you pulled your little stunt over three-eighty-eight, the Federation put a ban on the hire of bounty hunters, like yourself, through any official government channel for contraction of Federation work."

"I heard, although from what I gather a few ministers still made use of them through unofficial channels." Samus sat down opposite Daniel, but at the next table over, keeping a safe gap between them, at the same time, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the other doors into the hall open and another marine entered, he had his rifle holstered on his back, but his helmet covered his face, he didn't move on, but just took a few steps alongside the wall before leaning his back against it, keeping his eyes on Samus. It would seem that she wasn't quite trusted here.

"There are rumors of that, but it's not my place to argue about the decisions of the government. But to put it simply, even if the Federation forbade the official use of bounty hunters like yourself, I doubt you believe enough in coincidence to believe that the _need_ for people like you disappeared?"

Samus leaned back a little, that was true, she hadn't actually thought about that. The Federation had certainly made a lot of use of her services, she couldn't deny that most of her fortune came from the work she did for them, her work on Zebes, SR388, Tallon IV, Aether, Norion, Bryyo, Elysia, Urtraghus and the B.S.L. were just some of the major jobs she had done under contract with the Federation, and many of those had been jobs that standard Federation operations couldn't have dealt with. The idea that, just as she was made inaccessible, that the jobs that called for her skill set would cease, was indeed far too much of a coincidence, in that case…

"You were formed to replace me…"

"Pretty much, everyone here is a specialist, and each the most skilled in their field, pulled from the entirety of the Federation military. Well, there are a handful of guys who survived the destruction of the research station, but if we're talking about Samson Squad, each one of us was chosen to accomplish tasks that would have been requested of you." There was a hint of pride in Daniel's voice, and Samus couldn't entirely blame him, Federation Marines, normal humans using standard technology being given the same job as the galaxy's most famous bounty hunter, one who used the advanced weapons and armor of the extinct civilization that once ruled the galaxy, who wouldn't be proud to be a member of such a squad, let alone the one entrusted with leading it.

"That being the case, whenever we got word of the possibility of Chozo ruins being present on a world which recently reported a major Pirate attack, of course it was us sent out to investigate, remove the threat and secure the ruins. We only recently confirmed the presence of the ruins, the Pirates worked their hardest to keep us from them, but normally jobs like this would have been assigned to someone like you. That said, as you pointed out, we are still stuck in a stalemate, so perhaps we're not quite up to the job."

While Samus didn't quite want to give him her sympathy just yet, she felt he was being a little hard on himself, that he mentioned there were survivors of the research base, while the way he said it implied it was just soldiers, she felt likely that there were civilians present here as well. Even if there wasn't, he was in command of an entire outpost, their equipment wasn't close to what she had, every battle was much more likely to result in fatalities, when she went out, she only had to cover for herself, and her suit provided far more protection than the likes of the armor suits of the marines…that he was trying to accomplish the sort of tasks that would have been assigned to her, while having the weight of his squad's lives on his mind, wasn't something she could dismiss as being 'not quite up to job'.

"You've held out this long against an entire cruiser full of Pirates, most of the squads I know would have been wiped out in a matter of days." Samus couldn't really say she knew many squads, but she knew those she had encountered often seemed outmatched by Space Pirate forces, or at least only equal with them, that a single squad could hold their ground against an entire landing force was commendable.

Although, with all that said, she kind of got the gist of why they got their name, they weren't assigned to any particular system, cluster of ship, they were a squad formed under special circumstances, and each individual in it had been chosen especially, that they were named after their captain wasn't too strange an idea with that in mind. So it was probably a good idea to get back to the main topic.

"Well, with that out of the way, what is the situation here, I got hold of a few reports but, like I said, the last one seems pretty out of date, and the details were a bit vague for the most part anyway."

Daniel tilted his head slightly and looked Samus in the eye for a few moments, remaining silent, even if she was able to help them, he had to weigh up how much he could trust her with. After a few brief moments however, he spoke up.

"This area of space was one of the first hit by the war, at first we thought the facility here had went undetected, but unfortunately the Pirates showed up anyway. We're fairly certain, given their point of arrival and lack of any attempt to stealth, as well as how they retaliated, that they weren't expecting us here, so we believe they were somehow already aware of the ruins on this planet, which is strange because we hadn't found them yet. There was enough of a delay between them arriving and attacking the facility however, for them to send out a distress call with a brief rundown of the situation, that's why we were called out. We've been here for just over four months now, skirmishes with the Pirates aren't particularly common, but at this stage neither of us seem too confident about how strong the enemy is. The Pirate cruiser landed and the Pirates quickly built a base seven miles to the north-east, the ruins seem to be mostly underground, roughly in the center of the space between here and there. The research facility, or what's left of it, is four miles due east, although the main routes between here and there were destroyed in the aftermath of the initial attack, so the only access is through Pirate occupied areas of the ruins. We have had a bit of a blessing however, in that there seems to be two different Pirate forces present here, which seems to be the cause of some infighting, which is a help for us as it gives the Pirates one more reason not to pool all their forces and wipe us out."

Samus sat quietly as Daniel explained, putting together the image of the place in her head, the research facility would certainly be worth investigating, if there was enough of it left intact to investigate, but what really caught her attention was the presence of another group of Pirates. Space Pirate splinter groups were a rarity, unless Daniel was referring to a group of space pirates, rather than the specific organisation, but given the context, she doubted that.

"Do you know where this other group has set themselves up?" While they weren't likely to be friends, if Samus could figure out a bit more about this group, she felt confident there might be some way to make us of them to help the situation for the marines here. Whatever the case, knowing where they were would be helpful, even if it was just to avoid ending up in the middle of a firefight between the two factions.

"We're not certain, we're only aware of them from a handful of intercepted transmissions, any skirmishes go on behind enemy lines, and I'm not willing to risk any lives just to find out the details. That said, there's a peninsula to the north-west which would make for a defensible base, it's mostly water between here and there if you go directly, but overland it should be accessible if you make a start north for a few miles and then head west. But I have to ask you not to get too involved there, you showing up might just give them the motivation to put aside their differences and work together against us."

Samus nodded politely and stood up, prompting a bit of a confused look from Daniel before he got to his feet as well.

"You don't have any other questions?"

"I normally don't get any details about the areas I work until I find them out myself, you've given me more than enough. The ruins are to the north-east, right?" To be honest, while it was true that Samus normally didn't ever have much information to go on when she arrived somewhere, she knew it was probably best not to ask too much of Daniel, after all, he was technically working with a wanted terrorist, it was best for his own sake that he didn't give away too much.

"Yeah…" As soon as the word left his mouth, Samus was off, her helmet reappearing in a flash of light as she walked over to the door where the other marine, still watching her closely, was standing guard.

"Hey, Samus!" Stopping just before the door as Daniel called out to her, Samus turned back towards him, wondering what he had to say now, "Just to let you know, you've got a lot of friends in the force, we all know what you've done to help the Federation, whatever went up above three-eighty-eight, we're sure you had a reason."

Samus paused for a few seconds before simply turning, opening the door, and continuing on her way as the marine who had been leaning against the wall pushed off it and walked over to Daniel, seemingly with something to say as the door sealed itself behind her.

So she had friends, huh? A smile came across Samus' face as she made her way down the corridor, she wondered if that would last.

* * *

 **Author's Note: _For those of you who like Samus being a lone wolf the whole time and not working with others, this is probably where you should step off. While, of course, Samus' personality is still going to be one of wanting to work alone, Samson Squad will play a big part in this story and you'll get to know each member of it to some degree. That won't change the fact that Samus, Syn and a yet to be revealed character will be the focus, but this one isn't all about Samus. As always though, I hope you enjoyed, please let me know if there's anything you think I did well, or anything that could be improved, and I hope you stick around for the next chapter._**


End file.
